Resnet Help Sheets

Distribution of Copyrighted Material

There has been an increase in the number of copyright infringement notices from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) due to the sharing of files through peer to peer file sharing programs such as KaZaa, Morpheus, WinMX, LimeWire, and BitTorrent. These programs allow people to download files from your computer resulting in excessive outbound traffic on the network. Excessive use of these programs has contributed to slow Internet connections.

It is the policy of Pitzer College not to block or ban the use of such programs. However, if such activity results in excessive bandwidth usage to the point of downgrading the campus network or the illegal distribution of copyrighted material,  then the guilty party will be temporarily disconnected from the network and issued a warning. Failure to abide by the warning may result in loss of computing privilege as stated in the Residential Networking Acceptable Use Policy and in the Copyright Infringement Policy.

The best way to reduce network congestion and avoid distributing copyrighted material is to prevent other users from downloading files off your computer. Many of these programs run in the background and it is not always obvious when others are downloading from your computer. Often many multiple users will be connected to your computer downloading files off your computer at the same time. Simply clicking the "close" button on these programs will not necessarily quit these programs.

The simplest way to stop people from downloading files from your computer is to turn it off. Alternatively, many of these programs can be configured in a way that will disable the sharing of files and prevent others from using your computer to download files.

How to Disable File Sharing in Popular Programs

KaZaa 3.0 | Morpheus 4.8 | LimeWire 4.8.1 | BearShare 4.7 | External Links

KaZaA 3.0

You can tell that KaZaA is running on your computer if the icon is in the System Tray down in the right hand corner of your screen next to the clock.

To Quit Program

  • 1. Right click on the icon in the System Tray (next to the clock)
  • 2. Select Close Kazaa Media Desktop
  • Note: Selecting Hide KaZaA Media Desktop will only hide the program and it will continue running hidden.

To Disable from Startup

  • 1. Select Options from the Tools menu.
  • 2. Click on the My Kazaa tab.
  • 3. Uncheck Launch KaZaA Automatically and click OK.

To Stop File Sharing

  • 1. Select Options from the Tools menu.
  • 2. Click on the Sharing tab.
  • 3. Remove the check next to Share files in 'MyShared Folder' and click OK (Figure 1).
  • Kazaa
  • Figure 1

Morpheus 4.8

You can tell that Morpheus is running on your computer if the icon is in the System Tray down in the right hand corner of your screen next to the clock.

To Quit the Program

  • 1. Right click the Morpheus icon in the System Tray.
  • 2. Click Exit to close the program.

To Disable File Sharing

  • 1. Click the Configure Sharing button in the left pane (Figure 2).
  • Morpheus 1
  • Figure 2
  • 2. In the Share Properites dialog box, select the shared directories you want to stop sharing and click the Remove button (Figure 3).
  • Morpheus 2
  • Figure 3

3. Click OK to apply your changes.

LimeWire 4.8.1

You can tell that Limewire is running on your computer if the icon is in the System Tray down in the right hand corner of your screen next to the clock.

To Quit Program

Right-click on the icon in the System Tray and select Exit.

To Disable File Sharing

  • 1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  • 2. In the Options dialog box, select Sharing.
  • 3. Under Shared Directories, select everything listed and click the Remove button (Figure 4).
  • Limewire
  • Figure 4
  • 4. Click OK to apply your changes.

BearShare 4.7

You can tell that BearShare is running on your computer if the icon is in the System Tray down in the right hand corner of your screen next to the clock.

To Quit Program

Right click the BearShare icon in the System Tray (lower right corner) and click Exit.

To Disable from Startup

  • 1. Open the BearShare program and on the Setup menu, select Options.
  • 2. In the Setup dialog box, click on the Options tab.
  • 3. Under Window clear the box for Launch BearShare on System Startup and click OK (Figure 5).
  • BearShare Startup
  • Figure 5

To Disable File Sharing

  • 1. Open BearShare if it isn't already open on your screeen.
  • 2. On the Setup menu select Options.
  • 3. In the Setup dialog box, select the Uploads tab.
  • 4. Under Sharing, remove the check from the boxes labeled Share files from Library and Enable Partial File Sharing (Figure 6).
  • BearShare
  • Figure 6
  • 5. Click OK to apply your changes.

External Links

If your file sharing program is not listed above, the following link is an excellent resource with instructions on how to disable file sharing in many differnt file sharing programs.

University of Chicago -- Disabling Peer to Peer File Sharing