Congress Asks Universities To Curb Piracy

The Illegal Subset of the Integers writes "According to Ars Technica, Congress has sent letters to 19 universities identified by the RIAA and MPAA as havens for copyright infringement. In it, they not only seek to discover what these universities are doing to dissuade students from infringing activities, but give the implied threat. House Judiciary Committee member Lamar Smith (R-TX) was quoted as saying, 'If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act.' One wonders, though, what the universities are supposed to do when international disrespect for imaginary property rights is so widespread that there are currently over two million hits on Google for a certain oft-posted illegal number, up from the three hundred thousand hits from sometime yesterday."

Comments

Who sent the lettters?

[DragonWriter]

TFA isn't clear if the letters were sent by Congress as a whole (unlikely, that would take a joint resolution of both houses), by a particular Committee, or by a handful of members of Congress. The only member clearly involved is a member of the minority party who isn't even in the minority leadership on the Committee mentioned, who is also, apparently, the source of threats of action.

Just for the record...

[Tokimasa]

I attend one of these universities. I don't think I should name which one, but I like their anti-piracy policy.

The university does not monitor student activity. If the RIAA or MPAA determines that a student's activities are possibly illegal, they must formally request the information from my university. Following this, the university will begin an internal investigation to ensure that wrong-doing was going on. If it was, only then will anything be turned over.

It's not the job of a university to police its students. The job of the university is to educate.

Lamar Smith (R-RIAA)

[rsborg]

Isn't this the same Asshat who was involved in creating a NEW DMCA type bill? Oh yeah, He was.. If that's the case, why does the story say "Congress" and not more specifically "Republican Congressman" or "Lamar Asshat"?

That said, I think the Military Industrial Complex is a far more insidious and dangerous entity and poses a much stronger threat to Democracy in the United States. The problem is that they have infested many of the congressional districts and states so that no lawmaker will deny their spending (as it means jobs and constituent happyness for the politico).

Re:"Imaginary property rights"?

[digitrev]

Actually, the difference is facility and complete duplication. In taping music from the radio, and recording TV programs, you get a tape or VHS of reduced quality than the original. However, in downloading a song, you get a complete bit to bit transcription of the original song. Not only that, it's considerably easier, as you can do it remotely while someone else hosts it. All you have to do is download it. Compare that to the method of waiting for a good song to come on the radio, hitting the Play + Record button, and then hoping that you got a good selection. Or even doing it via VHS. However, that isn't to say I disagree with you. Until the music / movie industries are willing to accept the fact that people are going to download, and they try and charge people more for a broken product, people will continue to download. And yes, DRM is broken. You're giving the user the locked chest and the key. Even if you tell people they can only unlock it for reasons a, b, and c, people will still unlock it for d - z, simply because they can.