New bill requires them to both institute technology to stop illegal file-sharing as well as to provide alternatives or risk losing federal aid for all students, even for those who abide by the law.
If anybody thinks that politicians aren’t cut from the same lobbyist-funded cloth then word of a new Democrat-sponsored bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1963 ought to put those thoughts to rest.
Submitted recently by two top Democrat politicians, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (CA) and Higher Education Subcommittee Chairman Ruben Hinojos (TX), the bill would direct institutions of higher education to inform students and employees about policies and procedures related to illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials. Additionally, the legislation would instruct colleges and universities to develop a plan for offering "alternatives" to illegal downloading or P2P distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity. What this means is that schools would effectively be forced to sign up all its students for music subscription services, or rental services as I like to call them, like Napster or Ruckus.
Specifically, it requires that every college that receives federal funds must "Develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity." Failure to comply means that it will lose forfeit these funds and that even students who don’t use illegal file-sharing services will suffer as a result.
The MPAA is of course tickled pink over the new bill with El Jefe himself, Dan Glickman writing that “The MPAA commends Chairman Miller for taking this step to protect intellectual property on college campuses. Intellectual property theft is a worldwide problem that hurts our economy and costs more than 140,000 American jobs every year," he continued."We are pleased to see that Congress is taking this step to help keep our economy strong by protecting copyrighted material on college campuses.”
Angela Martinez, a spokeswoman for the MPAA, did note that penalties for non-compliance would be stiff since "Because it is added to the current reporting requirements that universities already have through the Secretary of Education, it would have the same penalties for noncompliance as any of the others requirements under current law."
So our students and universities have to be mindful of a worldwide problem that apparently the MPAA is unable to solve on its own? Must our youth be pulled into a losing battle by private interests bent on preserving record-setting profits? For Glickman also conveniently also as his so-called "most recent data" that the movies industry lost $6.1 billion to piracy in 2005. But, what he doesn’t say is that the real most recent data is from 2006 and shows that movie industry profits actually INCREASED by 8% last year! I just wonder if the legislators he cozied up to are aware of his misplaced gloom and doom.
What’s even more disgusting is how Glickman tries to claim that we "we are all in this together."
“We have been working closely with the higher education community and value that partnership because we are all in this together,” Glickman said. “Illegal downloading doesn’t’t just hurt the motion picture and music industries, but it can also be harmful to universities as it puts their systems at risk for security purposes, takes up bandwidth, and slows systems that are designed for research and other educational purposes.”
So the threat of slow connection speeds and noobs who can’t figure out how to configure Limewire or KaZaA correctly mean that students and universities are suffering or are somehow in danger? Why are our educational institutions "in this together" with the MPAA? Are they to blame for the poor business decisions in Hollywood or do they share in the $42.6 billion in profits the movies industry apparently earned last year?
A number of university officials are rightly alarmed by the bill and have written a letter to Congress expressing their dismay.
Signed by the the chancellor of the University of Maryland system, the president of Stanford University, the general counsel of Yale University, and the president of Penn State, it reads in part:
Such an extraordinarily inappropriate and punitive outcome would result in all students on that campus losing their federal financial aid–including Pell grants and student loans that are essential to their ability to attend college, advance their education, and acquire the skills necessary to compete in the 21st-century economy. Lower-income students, those most in need of federal financial aid, would be harmed most under the entertainment industry’s proposal.
Moreover, it’s pretty startling to hear that the MPAA is making such a brazen effort to crack down on colleges and universities because it can’t seem to get its act together and figure out what its customers want. With the movie industry making record setting profits is the need to hamper our students and educational institutions really necessary?
Looking for more stuff to watch or download?
The ‘Pirate Act’ Resurfaces, Would Allow Govt to Sue File-Sharers for Damages
Tips on how to not get busted for file-sharing
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
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