RIAA-backed amendment to force campus network surveillance
US Universities targeted by Recording Industry Association of America will be forced to put in place expensive surveillance techniques on campus networks to prevent illegal file sharing under a last minute amendment to the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 (HR 2669).
Civil liberties groups and student rights movements have heavily criticized the proposed amendment that would require colleges and universities marked by RIAA to plan for implementing a "technical solution" to illegal file sharing that does not yet exist for many campus environments and divert funds away from education and toward policing corporate copyrighted content on their campus network.
According to the text of the amendment (SA 2314), which will come up for voting this week, "the Secretary shall, on an annual basis, identify the 25 institutions of higher education participating in programs under this title, which have received during the previous calendar year the highest number of written notices from copyright owners, or persons authorized to act on behalf of copyright owners, alleging infringement of copyright by users of the institution’s information technology systems, where such notices identify with specificity the works alleged to be infringed, or a representative list of works alleged to be infringed, the date and time of the alleged infringing conduct together with information sufficient to identify the infringing user, and information sufficient to contact the copyright owner or its authorized representative."
Rights groups allege that this forces the Secretary of Education an agent of the entertainment industry while requiring the secretary to take action using data given to her by the entertainment industry that has been proven to be inaccurate.
Electronic Frontier Foundation claimed that more enforcement won't stop file sharing, as students will simply migrate towards other readily-accessible sharing tools that can't be easily monitored, but will chill academic freedom, as legitimate uses of the network will inevitably be stifled.
Higher Education Members of the Joint Committee sent a letter to the senators expressing the higher education community's grave concerns about a proposed amendment to the amendment developed by the entertainment industry.
They point that it is inappropriate for a Cabinet secretary to become an agent of the entertainment industry and point out that the bill already contains a provision that requires all colleges and universities to submit an annual report to the Secretary of Education providing details of the education and enforcement strategies being used on campus to reducing illegal file-sharing.
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