More and more college students have a bull’s-eye on their backs. Who’s targeting them — and why?

The entertainment industry is making examples of college students who illegally download and share electronic files. And the penalties are astounding.

Stanford University’s taking steps of its own to crack down on illegal downloading — to help students avoid the financial pitfalls and legal hassles.

In 2007, Stanford issued fines of $100, $500 and $1000 for the first three illegal downloading offenses to students who violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

This academic year, Stadford added new consequences for students who violate DMCA, including:

• implementing a disconnection fee
• requiring students to pass a quiz before being allowed back on the university’s network, and
• re-routing students’ personal computers’ IP address to an ISO Web page if students fail to respond to complaints in a timely manner.

What does your university do to discourage illegal downloading over the school’s server? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tags: Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Illegal downloading, Stanford University