Technology Office

The Office of Technology is responsible for providing technology services, resources, training and information to all members of the university community. It does so by coordinating the activities of five technology support units:

  • Administrative Applications - Creates, modifies and maintains the computer programs that support our administrative and academic information systems.
  • Instructional Media and Design CenterAddresses and supports the needs of faculty for technology integration in the classroom and distance education. Located in Andruss Library, second floor. 
  • Network Infrastructure Systems - Provides network services, telecommunication services and maintains network equipment and applications.
  • Performing Arts and Instructional Media Services - Operates campus performing arts venues and media facilities and schedules all activities for the auditoriums, including Arts in Bloom.
  • Technology Support Services - Provides desktop support for faculty/staff offices, computers in classrooms, labs and residence halls, exam scanning services, as well as for instructional media presentation systems (IMPS).

The Office of Technology also collaborates with technology specialists in Andruss Library, Performing Arts, the Department of Instructional Technology and Residence Life.

Student Support Faculty and Staff Support Help Desk Support

Faculty and Staff Technology Support
    Help Desk | Ben Franklin Hall
    570-389-4357
Student Connectivity and Technology Support
    Residential Computing
    Luzerne Hall (Side Entrance)
Need your IP address?
    Visit library.bloomu.edu/whereami
Outside remote assistance


Technology Policies, Guidelines and Practices

Publicly available Policies, Procedures and Guidelines

Policies, Procedures and Guidelines for Employees and Students


Copyrighted Materials

It is illegal to host or distribute copyrighted materials without permission. This includes images, software, MP3 music files, video files, etc.

Copyright holders, particularly from the music industry are very aggressively tracking down, identifying and prosecuting those who are sharing MP3 files.

BU regularly receives notifications that network addresses traceable to our university are involved in the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials.  

BU can trace these addresses directly to residence hall rooms. 

In cooperation with University Police and Residence Life staff, OT has established due process procedures for terminating user access to network services until the files in question are removed or the activity ceases.

As a result of the Federal Department of Education issuing new regulations detailing what institutions will be expected to do to comply with the requirements of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), The Office of Technology (OT) at Bloomsburg University has taken the following steps to demonstrate good faith in doing due diligence to comply with the HEOA regulations. It includes provisions that are designed to reduce the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

Following are the main HEOA requirements with brief explanations of the steps Bloomsburg University is taking:

1. Make an annual disclosure that informs students the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials may subject students to criminal and civil penalties and that describes the steps BU will take to detect and punish illegal distribution of copyright materials.

ACTION: Annually at the start of each new academic year a message to students will go out from the Office of Technology informing students about university policy related to the use of copyrighted material and steps the University will take to enforce its policies.

It should be noted BU has implemented a specific policy and set of DMCA procedures that were developed by the CITO. This policy and set of procedures complies with the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Our DMCA and other Copyright Complaints Procedure can be found below.

2. Certify we have developed plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyright material.

ACTION: Currently, BU Office of Technology has implemented a system aimed at bandwidth shaping specifically for BU network traffic. This software throttles back the network traffic from a particular user once that specific person’s network traffic reaches the threshold specified in our policy. While the Office of Technology monitors the volume of network traffic it is the policy of the University that OT not monitor the content of any traffic on the campus network.

The University’s policy also addresses the steps to be followed in responding to DMCA notices. Essentially, an initial notice triggers a contact from OT with the alleged offender off-campus network access being revoked and asking the individual to remove the offending material. Once the offending material is removed, off-campus network access is restored. A second (and any subsequent notices) will be referred to the Dean of Students for action.

3. "To the extent practicable," offer alternatives to illegal file sharing.

ACTION: OT has assembled a resource page on legal media downloads and file sharing that contains links to sites where students may legally download music, video and images, and OT will point to the resource site at EDUCAUSE. 
http://www.educause.edu/legalcontent

These steps will be reviewed annually by The Office of Technology in June and revised as necessary to remain in compliance. Based on the monitoring data OT collects relative to network traffic, as well as the volume of DMCA notices received, the review will assess the overall effectiveness of the University’s policy and procedures to promote the legal use of copyrighted materials. Any changes to the policy and/or procedures will take effect at the commencement of the following academic year.

The Bloomsburg University official designated to respond to allegations of copyright infringement on the part of individuals at Bloomsburg University, in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is identified below, along with contact information. The act requires the complainant to include certain information in a complaint, and providing that information in the initial contact may help speed resolution of the complaint.

Agent Contact Information

William Barnes, Information Security Manager
Office of Technology
Bloomsburg University
E-mail: wbarnes@bloomu.edu
Phone: 570-389-2813
Fax: 570-389-3066

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act specifies that all infringement claims must be in writing (either electronic mail or paper letter) and must include the following elements:

  1. A physical or electronic signature;
  2. Identification of the infringed work;
  3. Identification of the infringed material;
  4. Contact information for the complainant, e.g. address, telephone number, electronic mail address;
  5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner or the law; and
  6. A statement that the information contained in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file-sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes an infringement.

Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual damages or "statutory" damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys' fees. For details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505.

Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense.

For more information, please see the Web site of the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov, especially their FAQ's at www.copyright.gov/help/faq.

There are a number of services that provide legal media downloads. The link below is a frequently reviewed and updated list of known legal media providers that is maintained by Educause, a national association for information technology professionals in higher education.
http://www.educause.edu/legalcontent

Please note: Bloomsburg University does not endorse any of these services. They are only presented here as a resource to find legal downloads for music, video and other media.

Q: What does this email I received mean?

"Your internet connection is temporarily disabled until you reply to this email regarding the contents below.

So you understand why your network connection was disabled: The threat of lawsuits concerning copyrighted material is real. Bloomsburg University disables internet connections as we are informed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America Inc) that monitors file sharing on the internet. By default, most file-sharing programs (eg. LimeWire) automatically re-share everything you download back onto the internet. Therefore, all file sharing needs to be disabled. The other option would be to uninstall the file-sharing program. If you feel confident that you have turned off file-sharing or have uninstalled your file-sharing program, I can restore your internet connection.

Please respond to this email with any questions, concerns, or actions."

A: We received a valid copyright complaint from the copyright holder. You need to remove the copyrighted material and all programs that you used to download copyrighted material off the internet. The Residential Computing helpdesk can assist you if you’re unsure how to do this. Once this is done, reply to the email that it’s done and we’ll restore your access.