EDITORIAL – Education funding bill to address file sharing

In a desperate attempt to cut down on illegal file sharing, Congress has decided to hit… In a desperate attempt to cut down on illegal file sharing, Congress has decided to hit college students where it hurts the most: financial aid.

That’s right, a new bill introduced in Congress will require colleges to “develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity,” according to The New York Times.

As leverage, the bill promises to cut off aid to colleges and universities that don’t actively work to prevent the illegal trading of copyrighted works.

The bill has been endorsed by the Motion Picture Association of America, which issued a press release last week praising the legislation.

The bill even goes so far as to say that the new restrictions would help the universities as well, as illegal downloading “puts their systems at risk for security purposes, takes up bandwidth and slows systems that are designed for research and other educational purposes.”

Right. So in order to prevent the illegal downloading of music, movies and TV shows, Congress is going to cut off aid to universities – whose networks are responsible for only a small fraction of illegal file sharing, according to The New York Times. Not only is this bill nonsensical, it’s down right insulting.

There are just so many things wrong with this bill. Our biggest objection is that it seems to go against any concept of academic integrity. We are basically intertwining the interest of a for-profit industry and the future funding of non-profit educational institutions. And to what effect?

Not only are university networks only responsible for a small fraction of illegal file sharing, but as technology advances, illegal file sharing is becoming increasingly difficult – almost impossible, in some instances – to track.

Increased tracking could also impede on students’ legitimate use of some file sharing technologies.

In the past few years, the TV, movie and music industry, in particular, have been struggling to combat illegal file sharing. The TV industry has found a way to buy into the industry – by streaming shows online for free, with advertisements. The music and movie industries are still struggling, however, to maintain the current system by singling out easy targets like college students.

Why? Because our information is out there and comparatively easy to obtain from universities, because they can get it all from one source.

In the end, until they change their business models, the music and movie industries will continue to lose money to illegal file sharing. And if this bill passes, universities (and by extension, students) will lose money, too – if they don’t adequately follow by the legislation’s requirements.

It’s upsetting that our Congress, who we elected to serve the greater interest of the American electorate, has given into the demands of rich interest groups like the MPAA and the RIAA, at the cost of universities and students.

We encourage Pitt students, faculty and administrators to lobby against this legislation, for the sake of both our aid and our rights.