Industry Pushes For Tough New Copyright Prevention Law on Colleges

Posted by Eriq Gardner

The Chronicle of Higher Education has obtained a letter by the heads of the MPAA and RIAA asking Congress to pass a provision in the the College Education and Affordability Act, currently under debate. The bill is 747 pages long so we don't blame anybody for not reading it, but Section 494 contains a requirement for colleges receiving federal financial aid to develop a plan to provide filters to deter copyright infringement of movies and music.

The letter, signed by the MPAA's Dan Glickman and the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol, claimed that students "are disproportionately responsible for digital theft of copyrighted materials."

The American Council on Education sent their own letter to Congress, arguing "Section 494 of the House bill would impose new costs and regulatory burdens on both the Department of Education and campuses while doing very little to address the problem."