ArsTechnica: College Funding Bill Passed with Anti-P2P Provisions Intact

[Fergasun]

Wow, our Congress is blatently in the pockets of MPAA/RIAA!

The Senate and House have voted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and approved controversial new provisions that will require universities to provide students with access to commercial music downloading services and implement traffic filtering technologies in order to deter peer-to-peer filesharing. The bill now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.The RIAA and MPAA have vigorously lobbied for a legislative solution at both the state and federal levels. Pressure from the content industry compelled Congress to begin investigating the issue.

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The lobbying efforts eventually resulted in the addition of anti-piracy provisions in the College Opportunity and Affordability Act in the House, which passed by a wide margin in February. The Senate version of this bill passed today with bipartisan support.

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The MPAA will shortly begin sending out what it describes as "campus briefing books" that contain information on the anti-piracy provisions of the new law and what schools need to do in order to be in compliance. The books will also offer hints on how to clamp down on P2P traffic and detect infringement.

There's nothing in here that indicates a difference between legal vs. illegal P2P. Eff you Congress! Are you trying to kill the freedom of the Internet? Fat-cat-moroons!

[JohnLockesGhost]

Congress will discover trying to regulate the internet is like herding cats.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

Good thing I'm not on campus

[DGreenistheBest]

This just makes me want to pirate stuff.

[Fergasun]

More Information via LOC
Mr. Alexander (Senator) put 3 letters on record, including one from Vanderbilt complaining about numerous unfunded Federal Mandates in the bill.

Chief among our concerns are the countless number of new regulations with which universities are going to be forced to comply, covering such topics as peer-to-peer file sharing, campus emergency notifications, data on alumni, charitable gifts, student diversity, immunization records, missing person reports, and lobbying efforts. These new regulations will place an immense burden on institutions and carry with them a heavy implementation price tag. At the same time that we are trying to rein in costs, we are facing spiraling expenses associated with complying with federal regulations. Overregulation of higher education institutions threatens the core of what makes our system successful--its autonomy and its diversity.

More quotes from debate...

Finally, let me say that I am pleased that this legislation includes provisions that Congressman Berman and I worked on that require institutions to disclose to students and employees their policies related to copyright infringement and a description of actions that institutions take to prevent and detect illegal file sharing.

Searching the Congressional Record I could not find one other person other than Senator Alexander who spoke up regarding opposition to this part of the bill.

[No Excuses]

The Senate and House have voted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and approved controversial new provisions that will require universities to provide students with access to commercial music downloading services and implement traffic filtering technologies in order to deter peer-to-peer filesharing.

there's already a website for that called www.ruckus.com that provides free music downloading for college students. And even worse, it doesn't even let you put the music on your ipod

Now they are regulating on campus internet to detect P2P file sharing

[dfitzo53]

While I don't necessarily agree with the measure, anyone who's lived in a college dorm knows that most of the P2P that goes on is illegal.