THEY steal materials online and get sneakier with it.

Instead of doing their dirty work on their home computers, they use the ones in school.

So if anyone checks if they are illegally downloading copyrighted material, it is the school that gets into trouble.

And that is precisely what happened.

This year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) sent warning letters to three schools - two secondary schools and one junior college - where illegal downloading was rampant.

The ministry declined to name the schools.

An MOE spokesman said it has guidelines on Intellectual Property (IP) rights and proper use of the resources assigned to the students.

She said: 'Users shall not infringe copyright laws, and users are not to use MOE resources for illegal or inappropriate activities.'

The spokesman added that the most commonly downloaded forms of multimedia were games and software files.

And though just three schools have received formal written warnings, illegal download sneaks may be operating on a wider scale, which may include polytechics and the Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs).

Polytechnic student Kenneth Teng, 19, said some of his peers have found ways to download illegally using their school Internet access.

Most students on campus, he said, log on in school with their own laptops, using the school's wireless Internet access.

He said: 'We are blocked from using downloading software like Limewire and Kazaa, and even from playing online games like MapleStory.

'But some of my friends have managed to find alternative ways to download.'

He says a popular option is visiting websites that allow users to download the files directly.

A second-year ITE student, who declined to be named, said his friends often use school computers to illegally download music files from websites.

He said: 'On these sites, all they have to do is search for the files they want, right-click on the link and save.'

The students, he added, often then save their downloaded files on USB devices like thumbdrives.

Files downloaded from these websites could contain copyrighted material, but can go undetected because they are transferred in regular information packets, just like most legal downloads.

An online security expert, Mr Aloysius Cheang, said this makes illegal downloading a difficult problem to detect and control.

He said schools often employ several methods to prevent students from downloading.

One method is configuring proxy servers, which block users from accessing certain websites. Banned addresses can be specified by a web administrator.

Another is using web filtering software to block websites based on their content.

Schools which have computers linked via an intranet can also protect their networks via software and firewalls on individual computers.

Mr Cheang added that most schools use a combination of all these methods.

He said: 'They don't just control illegal downloading - they also protect against malicious software and viruses.'

EDUCATING ON IP RIGHTS

There are several programmes to educate youths on IP rights.

The MOE provides a Cyberwellness Framework to guide schools in planning their individual programmes.

A resource kit outlining lesson plans on key Internet-related topics has also been developed to help schools execute their cyber-wellness programmes.

These topics include copyright law - understanding what constitutes copyright infringement - and how to seek written permission to use materials.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) also runs several programmes on IP rights.

Individual schools are also doing their part.

Mrs Julia Woo, principal of Ping Yi Secondary School, said the school has a cyber-wellness programme to educate students on healthy online behaviour.

She said: 'This includes giving them information on online etiquette and respecting IP rights.

'When doing their projects, some students sometimes use articles from the Internet without citing their source.

'It's important for them to know the importance of this practice.'

However, other schools, such as Jurong Junior College, believe the onus is on students to exercise self-discipline.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 31 2007