Technology, Culture, Commentary on the Internet Revolution

Universities Thwart Anti-P2P Amendment

by Mike Abundo on July 26th, 2007

You’d think a bill to renew the Higher Education Act would actually focus on education, right? Apparently, US Senator Harry Reid thinks it should focus on serving the recording industry. Last week, Reid introduced an amendment requiring universities to do the following favors for the RIAA:

• Report annually to the U.S. Education Department on policies related to illegal downloading.
• Review their procedures to be sure that they are effective.
• “Provide evidence” to the Education Department that they have “developed a plan for implementing a technology-based deterrent to prevent the illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property.”

The measure would also require the education secretary to annually identify the 25 colleges and universities that have in the previous year received the most notices of copyright violations using institutional technology networks.

Fortunately, academic outrage quickly forced Reid to climb out of the RIAA’s back pocket and drop the amendment without explanation. What remained was some laughable requirement for universities to tell students illicit file sharing is a bad thing. In the emerging Earth, politicians on corporate payrolls can’t sell their constituents to their employers so easily anymore.

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POSTED IN: Education, Law, Music