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File Sharing Back in House Legislation
11/12/2007
Illegal file sharing at colleges and universities is back on the agenda in Congress. In a bill introduced in the United States House of Representatives late last week by Reps. George Miller (D-CA, chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor) and Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX), language was introduced requiring institutions to deal with file sharing and the illegal distribution of copyrighted material by students. However, reports on the legislation (and responses to the reports) may be overstating the significance of the wording.Back in July, members of the U.S. Senate had attempted to put an amendment into the reauthorization legislation for the Higher Education Act that would have required universities to police and report uses of illegal file sharing on their campuses. Specifically, the amendment would have required the U.S. Secretary of Education to create an annual report for Congress outlining which 25 Universities have received the most copyright infringement notices and forcing those universities to come up with and report a plan of action on how they planned to stop copyright infringement on their campuses. Opposed by educational institutions and trade groups, that amendment, drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, was removed prior to the passage of the HEA reauthorization legislation 95 to 0.
Now the House, in a piece of legislation dubbed the "College Opportunity and Affordability Act," has placed the issue of file sharing in higher ed back onto the agenda.
Reports on the legislation, particularly a report by CNET News.com, implied that the legislation would require colleges and universities to provide subscriptions to services like Ruckus and Napster as an alternative to illegal file sharing or else lose billions of dollars in financial aid. The News.com report also stated, "According to the bill, if universities did not agree to test 'technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity,' all of their students--even ones who don't own a computer--would lose federal financial aid." However, such wording is not in the actual legislation.
Buried in the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (but not appearing in the legislation's summary materials) is a whole section dealing with the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. Section 494, "Campus-Based Digital Theft Prevention," would require colleges and universities participating in any Title IV program to:
Make publicly available to their students and employees, the policies and procedures related to the illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials required to be disclosed under section 485(a)(1)(P); and
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