The MP/RIAA and their puppets in the Senate are proposing blackmailing Colleges into doing their Due Diligence/dirty work. This proposal (Senate Amendment 2314) would withhold federal funding for student aid unless schools adopt surveillance and filtering technologies on their campus networks.
Get to contact information for your senator(s) at the EFF Action Center.
Action Alert: Keep Copyright Holders’ Hands Off of Campus Networks!
Major copyright holders are backing a legislative proposal [PDF] to make colleges do their dirty work. The Higher Education Act is supposed to make going to college more affordable, but, under a last-minute amendment, certain schools would risk losing federal funding for student aid if they don’t divert funds away from education and toward policing corporate copyrighted content on their campus network. Twenty-five schools will annually be singled out, required to police their students with “technology-based deterrents” (read: network surveillance technologies), and forced to provide evidence to the Secretary of Education about their efforts to stop file sharing.
Senate Amendment 2314 may come up for a vote very soon, so it’s critical that you call your Senators now and tell them to reject this proposal. Use the form below to find your Senators’ phone number.
Schools are already being forced to expend significant resources in the face of the RIAA’s lawsuit campaign against students and thousands of copyright nastygrams. More enforcement won’t stop file sharing, as students will simply migrate towards other readily-accessible sharing tools that can’t be easily monitored. But it will chill academic freedom, as legitimate uses of the network will inevitably be stifled.
The federal government shouldn’t be in charge of schools’ network management decisions. Congress ought to reject this misguided proposal and take up real solutions that get artists paid and let students keep sharing. Please take action and call your Senators now.
