Colleges and universities nationwide may soon step up anti-piracy efforts after a new bill was signed into law earlier this month.
Two provisions in a national education bill passed this summer require any institution of higher education receiving federal funding to commit to combatting illegal file sharing on campus.
The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2008, which President Bush signed into law on Aug. 14, extends and amends the Higher Education Act of 1965.
The new law states that in order to receive federal funds, which Tufts does, colleges and universities must daemonstrate that they have "developed plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including through the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents."
For students nationwide, this could translate into increased monitoring of network activities, and it could force colleges to actively crack down on file sharing – even without outside pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The law's other file-sharing provision mandates that schools "offer alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property" by doing things like providing or promoting legal downloading services like Rhapsody, Ruckus or iTunes.
The passage of the act is a victory for the RIAA and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), which lobbied to have the anti-piracy language in the bill.
In a public statement issued after the bill passed the U.S. Senate by an overwhelming 83-8 margin, MPAA President Dan Glickman praised the Senate's decision. "By including these important provisions in the Higher Education Act, Congress is sending a strong message that intellectual property is worth protecting," he said.
Because of the bill's open-ended language, the real-world effects of these provisions could turn out to be dramatic or inconsequential, depending on each school's interpretation and enforcement of the provisions.
Tufts already "offers alternatives to illegal downloading" on a University Information Technology Web site, which lists eight legal online music sources, including emusic, iTunes, and Ruckus.
