Congress Gets Tough On Campus File-Sharing

Washington D.C. (CNS) - Attempting to cut off illegal downloads in one of piracy's most fertile breeding grounds, the House lawmakers have proposed aggressive legislation that could potentially halt federal funding to colleges and universities whose students are caught sharing copyright material.

The "College Opportunity And Affordability Act of 2007" was introduced by Democrat Representatives from California and Texas, and if passed would mandate all campuses to encrypt their networks against copyright infringement - aiming specifically at peer-to-peer (P2P) activity.

Schools that failed to comply could lose eligibility for all Federal funding, including loans and Pell grants, an aspect that instantly raised red flags to many university officials.

An open letter to Congress, signed by the President of Stanford University, the general counsel for Yale University, and others explained, "such an extraordinarily inappropriate and punitive outcome would result in all students on that campus losing their federal financial aid... Lower-income students, those most in need of federal financial aid, would be harmed most under the entertainment industry's proposal."

In response backing politicians have stated that the bill would encourage universities to sign up for subscription music services, such as Rhapsody, that could prove a lawful substitute to banned sharing.

The proposed legislation was championed by the Motion Picture Association, whose CEO, Dan Glickman, said "we are pleased to see that Congress is taking this step to help keep our economy strong by protecting copyrighted material on college campuses."