Smaller, less evasive searches have been performed by computer services in the past. Other crackdowns on media piracy have occurred all over the country. Network Engineers noticed that he was distributing illegal copies of programs, movies and mp3s online. They notified the U.S. Attorney's Office. Three years is actually a bit of a merciful sentence since the standard for violation of copyright laws is five years.
Repeat offenders face up to ten years behind bars.
Some student operations concerning mp3s and other media may not be as easy to find as Levy's. However, the bulk of the media makes little difference in sentencing as well as the difficulty of attaining such media. While a password may be used to protect one's files, obvious or blatant password systems can and will be cracked by University professionals. Similar to Carnegie Mellon, we have a student-browseable network makes it easy to share files and folders. While the University is not currently under any heat from the RIAA, we have seen a large change in the Information Technology Services.