Top democratic politicians have introduced legislation that could cause universities to lose financial aid if they don’t provide deterrents against digital piracy and provide alternatives to piracy, such as subscription services for music and movies for all students.

Basically, the legislation is charging universities with the responsibility of policing their networks and stopping digital piracy. Why we need another law for digital piracy that just targets universities is beyond me. We are all aware that piracy is illegal and there are already laws that deal with it.

Is there a special law being proposed to penalize Comcast or Verizon if people use their networks illegally?

But that’s not the worst part. Universities have to provide alternatives — AKA a guaranteed revenue stream to the RIAA and MPAA. Yes, you heard that correctly. They could be forced to purchase subscription services for students, even though students are free to purchase music, movies and TV shows legally from sources like iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, Best Buy, etc, etc, etc.

They would be forced to pay money to the RIAA and MPAA, even though both industries have been hit hard by piracy because their products aren’t that good and their prices are way to high. Plus, they have refused for years to give users products in the formats people want, but now lawmakers could change all of that and give them a revenue stream they don’t deserve.

That’s the power of big lobbies in this country. They can convince stupid politicians (Reps. George Miller from California and Ruben Hinojosa of Texas to name a few) to propose ridiculous laws that would help big business and hurt everyday Americans. But that’s not the worst part.

No, the worst part is that financial aid is being threatened. Can you imagine taking away the money that many students need to get a higher education because of the actions of a few students? Could you imagine putting the interests of the RIAA and MPAA over the interest of this country to educate our citizens?

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.

The prospect of losing a combined total of nearly $100 billion a year in federal financial aid, coupled with the possibility of overzealous copyright-bots limiting the sharing of legitimate content, has alarmed university officials.

“Such an extraordinarily inappropriate and punitive outcome would result in all students on that campus losing their federal financial aid–including Pell grants and student loans that are essential to their ability to attend college, advance their education, and acquire the skills necessary to compete in the 21st-century economy,” a letter from university officials to Congress written on Wednesday said. “Lower-income students, those most in need of federal financial aid, would be harmed most under the entertainment industry’s proposal.”

That’s a scary future, and the bill officially made it through committee on Nov. 15. But I can’t articulate this as well as some industry professionals.

Stop whatever you are doing and listen to the first few minutes of the Buzz Out Loud Podcast from Nov. 16. Three of their journalists discuss the proposed legislation and the impact it could have on students, especially lower income students who may not even be breaking the law. It’s horrific that any self-respecting politician could think this was a good idea.

Call and write your congressman or congresswoman and let them know how unacceptable this. Lobby the RIAA and MPAA, because this is incredibly unAmerican and ridiculous.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 2:21 pm and is filed under today's thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.