Students could lose aid for P2P offenses

Congress and the movie industry have taken the war on file sharing to the next level with a… Congress and the movie industry have taken the war on file sharing to the next level with a bill that would penalize universities for allowing illegal downloading and could potentially jeopardize students’ ability to receive federal aid.

The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 was recommended by the House Committee on Education and Labor on Nov. 15 to be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives.

According to committee spokesperson Rachel Racusen, there is not a clear sense of when the bill will be brought to the floor of the House.

The bill, introduced by committee chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, contains provisions to reduce illegal file sharing and piracy on college campuses.

Such provisions would require colleges to inform their students about the law and campus policies on illegal downloading, to report their campus policies and procedures for dealing with violations to the federal government, and to develop a plan to deter illegal downloading as well as offer a legal alternative. The bill would also hand out grants to institutions to “develop, implement, operate, improve and disseminate programs of prevention to reduce and eliminate the illegal downloading and distribution of intellectual property.”

The Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) applauded the progress of the legislation, calling it “a positive step in educating students and deterring illegal downloading and file-sharing on college campuses.”

The MPAA has a reason to be interested in this legislation. According to the MPAA CEO, George Glickman, the U.S. motion picture industry lost over $500 million in 2005 as a result of college students illegally sharing files over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

However, some concerns still remain about the legislation. Failure to carry out the mandates in the legislation would make a university ineligible for participation in at least some part of Title IV federal aid programs.

This concern was articulated by the Higher Education Members of the Joint Committee, comprised of the presidents of several American universities, in a letter to Miller.

The letter argued that “the consequences of an institution failing to prevent illegal file sharing would be the loss of Title IV student aid eligibility. Such an extraordinarily inappropriate and punitive outcome would result in all students on 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. Lower income students particularly would be most harmed under this proposal.”

Pitt is also opposed to such penalties. According to Pitt spokesman John Fedele, “Pitt is strongly and categorically opposed to the suspension of Title IV student aid as a punishment for P2P violations. These two things are not related,” Fedele said.

However, the MPAA contends, the penalties stipulated under the law are not as severe as described by the letter.

According to the MPAA, if an institution fails to comply with the provisions of the act, the process that the institution must go through is long, with many opportunities to correct the violation before any action is taken with regard to Title IV eligibility.

The existing punishments for a student caught file-sharing at Pitt, according to Fedele, are “for an initial violation, IT probation for the concerned student; but for repeat violations, the loss of access to the university computer system and possible legal persecution and fines,” Fedele said.

However, to avoid disciplining students, Fedele noted that Pitt has considered offering alternatives to illegal downloading, as the legislation prescribes.

“Pitt already has a number of policies and procedures in place to combat file-sharing, including notices to all new and returning students about the law, links to educational materials such as the RIAA’s video about illegal file-sharing, warnings about violations, and sanctions for violators,” Fedele said.