Mixed reviews for illegal file-sharing on campus

Newly reauthorized legislation will ask U.S. universities to deter students from illegal file-sharing, a controversial provision that has drawn concern from educators and praise from copyright holders.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass the Higher Education Act 2008 (H.R. 4137), a law first established in 1965 to govern the nation's universities. Despite its five-year reauthorization schedule, the law hadn't been reapproved by Congress for 10 years, or about the same time it's taken the Internet to pervade college campuses nationwide. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation in the coming weeks.

Among its new provisions are rules asking universities and colleges to develop "plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including through the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents." And to "the extent practicable," offer students legal alternatives for peer-to-peer file sharing as "determined by the institution in consultation with the chief technology officer," according to the act.

The provisions initially drew concern from educators because, if universities and colleges don't comply, they could risk losing federal aid grant funding. The nonprofit tech-and-education advocacy group Educause also said this week that the provision could put too high of a burden on universities to develop programs that would meet the law's potentially nebulous standard.

These provisions require "each institution to carefully interpret the legislation's language in deciding how to comply," according to a blog post from Educause. The group signed a joint letter from the American Council on Education expressing reservations about the provisions.

Still, a representative from the House Education and Labor Committee said that the law does not require universities to police students, but rather to inform them of their campus policies and the legal implications of downloading and disseminating copyrighted materials. It asks that universities develop a plan for deterring file-sharing, but it does not mandate any specific program. Universities that don't comply with these provisions, including reporting annually on their campus policy to the Department of Education, would be able to appeal a decision on federal funding.

In addition, under the new law, universities would be able to apply for a grant to support the development of a program to stop illegal file-sharing on campus. If signed by the president, the provisions will go into effect for the fall semester.

The Motion Picture Association of America applauded the passage of the act. It plans to start sending information booklets to college campuses outlining ways to comply with the legislation.

"Congress is sending a strong message that intellectual property is worth protecting," MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said in a statement.

Piracy is just one piece of the new Higher Education Act. Overall, the reauthorized legislation seeks to help students deal with rising tuition costs through a number of new provisions, including asking universities to post more information on the Web for students, such as Web calculators that help students accurately assess fees.

Other new additions include provisions for energy-efficient practices and to encourage interest in science and technology. The legislation, for example, includes a grant program for colleges that want to design and implement new green programs.

In the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech last year, the law also authorizes a grant program for universities seeking to overhaul their security and emergency warning systems with new technology. Universities could apply for funding from the DOE to create a real-time messaging system, for example.

"In the decade since the Higher Education Act was last reauthorized, our world has changed dramatically--and so have the needs of America's students," said Rachel Racusen, a spokeswoman for the House Education and Labor Committee. It "will bring our nation's higher education programs into the 21st century."

[unknown unknown]

With congress firmly on the payroll for entertainment industry, and just about one else that produce enough contributions, is it any wonder they have the lowest approval rating in history.

They're all corupt, they'd sell their own mothers if it meant bigger contributions to their campaigns.

[imacpwr]

And all this time I thought the Higher Education Act of 2008 was designed to raise the standard of education in America. I was wrong, apparently it's designed to raise the profit margins of the IRAA and MPAA..!!
MPAA CEO Dan Glickman's quote: "Congress is sending a strong message that intellectual property is worth protecting" clearly states that he believes education should take a backseat to big business's profits..!
Let's break the back of the IRAA and MPAA, support p2p..!!

[jjbraunius]

I think they should just throw the students out of the universities for illegal file sharing, how dare they infringe on the RIAA!

[appledogx--2008]

That's MPAA; if there is much difference.

[appledogx--2008]

Government is best which governs least. Somehow the RIAA thinks it is best if it governs everything.

[Lerianis]

Actually, that isn't true. The government that is best is the one that governs the PEOPLE least..... I have no problem with them telling businesses what to do, in all honesty.

[Gayle Edwards]

Lets shine a little TRUTH on this...

This was NOT done for any pressing societal-issue. And, it certainly wont, in any way, improve education (if any thing this will directly cause untold problems, costs, and loss of freedoms).

Basically, the universities are being ordered (under serious-threat) to spy on students, and forcibly provide (ever scarcer) monetary-resources, directly, to (entirely-unconnected) private-interests (to the direct detriment of the entire higher-education system). In short, a few bloated, corporate-entities snapped their fingers... and their obedient, slobbering, slaves ("our government") did their true-masters bidding (beyond, even, these crooks wildest-dreams).

This is absolutely disgusting. What is worse is that NOBODY is actually surprised by this level of corruption... or, how easily this was done right in front of the American-Peoples eyes.

God... our nation is so far gone...

[cohaver]

RIAA will fail so will this. Technology always surpasses Law. And Technology is not control by the US Government Let us not forget where 90% of the hardware and software is made overseas and no matter how powerful RIAA is in America Russia China and Europe will stop them cold. Even in America thousands of software and hardware designers make things with loopholes in them(by skill or error). RIAA is the Communist of 21 first century Forcing the state to do it bidding and only hurting the skill set of America schools.

[Lemon5]

Man, the propaganda really works wonders in elementary schools. I never would have thought that our government could be bought out so easily. It is really pretty sad. I mean the corporations just say they want something, the US government will just bend over backwards just to do what this corporation asks them to.

[eddified]

This is a weird twist on the Police State..... The state isn't doing the policing, but rather forcing higher education to do it for them. This is just sick. Our legislators really have been bought.

[ethana2]

I'm great with them stopping piracy on campuses, as long as they do so without messing with my copyleft downloads. My entire music library is from jamendo.com; vorbis files obtained via the torrent client that came with my os (ubuntu). As long as I can still do my perfectly legal downloading at decent speeds, I don't care what they do to the pirates.

[jef5623]

Illegal Fire sharing should not be allowed in the 7th age of computing.

[benjaminstraight]

This puts pressure on publicly-funded schools.