San Juan College

to:                 all San Juan College staff and full-time and adjunct faculty

from:           dr. carol j. spencer, president

subject:     mp3 files on college servers

date:            October 24, 2003

 

MP3 is short for: Moving Picture Experts Group Layer 3.  MP3 refers to an audio compression format that greatly reduces the size of audio files.  The result in real terms is that MP3 shrinks the original sound data by a factor of 12 without sacrificing sound quality.

 

While MP3 creates significantly smaller files sizes for audio, these can still range from 2MB to 5MB in size for an average commercial song.

 

While MP3 audio files can have valid instructional uses and conform to existing copyright law, they can also represent commercial properties that have been created and shared in violation of copyright law.  It is at this second file type that this policy is aimed.

 

On November 15, 2003 all unauthorized MP3 files will be deleted from college file servers.  From that date forward, reports will be run periodically looking for MP3 files.  If any MP3 files are found, they will be deleted immediately.

 

In order to insure that instructional MP3 files are not deleted, faculty and staff will need to fill out a short online form located by typing MP3 into a web browser (Internet Explorer) while on campus.