Personal Computer Use Can Download Trouble At Work

[protecteur]

Personal computer use can download trouble at work





By Anita Bruzzese
ON THE JOB

Fess up. You've used the computer at work for personal business. You've booked your vacation online while sitting at your desk, you ordered some new books to be delivered to your home and you even downloaded some music and videos.
Don't be surprised, then, when your employer gets dragged into court because of your online antics. Not the vacation business, or even the ordering of books. Nope. It was when you downloaded the music and videos -- and didn't pay for the right -- that you landed your company, and yourself, in hot water.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has made it clear that it plans to go after anyone who illegally pirates music and videos, and the bigger the fish, the better.
This follows, of course, the highly-publicized efforts that shut down the original Napster, and the threats against colleges and universities that prosecution would result if students were not stopped from using higher education's computers to illegally download music and videos, says Bruce Sunstein, head of the patent practice group for the Boston-based law firm of Bromberg & Sunstein.
"The music industry has used the carrot and stick approach. The carrot came from them offering a legal way to download music and videos for a fee. The stick came when they started going after conspicuous targets illegally downloading from the Internet. Going after employers is a way for them to extend their 'stick' approach," Sunstein says.
Specifically, major record labels last year sent letters to employers, stating that their employees used company computers to feed file-swapping networks. A brochure, along with the letter, listed a variety of ills that might result from illegal downloads, such as online viruses, exposed private files and breached corporate firewalls. And it also offered a sample memo that could be sent to employees regarding the illegal downloads, including language stating guilty employees could face disciplinary action, even termination.
The RIAA, the trade group for the largest music labels, warns that "significant legal damages" could result for employers and employees if the alleged piracy is not stopped.
"Finding out who the individual employee is who downloaded illegally is always an issue for the RIAA," Sunstein says. "So they're going to go after the bigger people -- and that means a whole company."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sunstein says that employers could be in legal hot water if it is found that the bosses knew about the illegal downloading, and encouraged it somehow. "Then it's going to be very simple to find them guilty," he says. "But if the employer has no policy against downloading, but more or less let the employee do it, then liability will be harder to prove."
Still, Sunstein says that it's important that employees understand they should not expect "to have the right of privacy" on an employer's computer -- whether it's ordering a new best seller or downloading music.
"I don't think an employer should spy on an employee, but I do think an employer should reserve the right to investigate what is happening on their computers," he says.
Finally, Sunstein says the best policy to protect the company from legal problems is to simply state -- in writing -- that downloading music or videos on workplace computers is forbidden.
-----
Anita Bruzzese can be reached c/o Business Editor, Gannett News Service, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Va. 22107.