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Colleges Risk Losing Federal Funding If They Don't Fight Piracy
crimeandpunishment writes
"The US government is making colleges and universities join in the fight against digital piracy by threatening to pull federal funding. Beginning this month, a provision of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 requires colleges to have plans to combat unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials on their networks. Colleges that don't do enough could lose their eligibility for federal student aid. 'Their options include taking steps to limit how much bandwidth can be consumed by peer-to-peer networking, monitoring traffic, using a commercial product to reduce or block illegal file sharing or "vigorously" responding to copyright infringement notices from copyright holders.'"
How is that Change working for ya?
I can't wait for the day when the government is allowed to regulate internet traffic through "net neutrality" legislation. I'm sure the RIAA and MPAA won't lobby politicians to police torrent traffic. Governments are never corrupt! Nothing could possibly go wrong, and this story isn't a shining example of the government's surplus of power.
*ahem*. Federal funding composes over 90% of the funding for every single university in the nation. What you're proposing would render every school bankrupt as only the children of the obscenely wealthy would be able to afford to pay ten times the tuition they pay now.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
for breeding greater industrial strength p2p apps
more obfuscated, more sparse, more steganography, more secure, better hidden...
oh, you thought you were going to stop piracy instead?
you thought you were going to take a bunch of poor, technically astute, media hungry young folk, and get them to go "gee, all this arm twisting... maybe i should spend $200 a month i don't have on the media i want rather than stick it to an authoritarian internet freedom destroying parasitical antiquated UNNECESSARY corporate entity"
yeah, good luck with that RIMPAA
pass all the laws you want. all of them. this is the best you can do? you can't think of something more authoritarian and controlling for the sake of shoehorning yourself into our cultural space? c'mon, you can do better than that! buy some more legislators, hire some more lawyers. be all that you can be! go for the gold!
UNENFORCEABLE
let me repeat that, in case you didn't hear me
UN-EN-FORCE-ABLE
you ignorant, irrelevant pricks
go. snort your last coke off your last hookers' ass
YOU'RE OUT OF BUSINESS
YOU LOSE
BUHBYE
don't let the packet hit you on your ass on the way out the router
fucking parasites
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Here's a thought Mr Government, how about force all those who are on welfare or similar to drug test, I bet you'll save billions.
Yea right...
With some colleges with some form of anti-piracy in place and others with plans already on the plan... Fighting piracy for colleges may actually be a good thing for them.
1. Most college MIS Departments are severally limited in what they are getting in terms of technology saying they need this to fight piracy (and to get a better firewall or redo their antiquated network) Can get the new equipment they needed for decades.
2. Cutting piracy can increase overall bandwidth for the college.
3. Reputation, say they all did do nothing and federal funding withdrew the funds... First we point out the feds and say how they are the bad guys... Then all they need to do is point to the rules that are broken and it will shut-up the general public.
4. Good relations with the Feds. You don't bite the hand that feeds you.
5. Piracy is a Bad thing. It is illegal... A bunch of rich kids pirating software just because it will cut into their beer money. I went threw college what was pirated most of the time... Games, Music, Movies. What they pirate the least, Books, Educational resources, and anything else their mom and pop will put up the bill to pay for. Slashdoters try to make piracy as some form of civil disobedience, it is just taking software. And justifying it because of the following lame excuses...
a. I wouldn't have got the software if it wasn't free anyways... Which has the flaw of what about the stuff that you would have paid for if you couldn't get it for free. Also what about those free Open Source substitutes that are supposed to be so much better then the propriety stuff anyways. Or follow the path of Linus... I couldn't get the software to do what I wanted for a price I wanted to pay so I made it myself.
b. They are not loosing anything when I pirate. Except that box isn't the most expensive part of the software it was the work of talented IT people (you know those jobs you want to make money in). You think of software in terms of Microsoft... Most software is written in small teams of less then 10 people. After all the expenses they are not making as much as you think.
c. SOFTWARE SHOULD BE FREE AS IN SPEACH! Fine but the people who published the software didn't agree with you. If you think breaking their wishes for your beliefs means that companies should break the GPL because they don't believe in that license.
6. This rule is about showing valid enforcement not stopping it. There leaves gaps where you can say you are doing your part, without really measuring your success.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Actually it means "We - the elite - can".
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
If by "a group of people who have the benefit of unlimited time and resources" you mean the industry, you're right.
Check it out: they're winning. And they're winning because there is no meaningful fight going on. Everytime the media mob buys a law or takes down someone the answer is always "someone else will spring up, we'll use encryption" and assorted yadda yadda.
What is happening is that the enemy tanks are in town and everybody is saying "oh, but when our secret weapons will show up we'll prevail" or "oh, doesn't matter, we'll go run into the sewers".
They can - and they will - legislate the Internet into Cable TV 2.0. They will control the ISPs and choke it into braindead status. They have shown the ability to force entire countries into compliance - that's real power. That's what they can do. It's not possible to fight them with law, because it's been bought. It's not possible to fight them with technological resources - their own are limitless. The only thing that is viable is direct action.
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
Umm...Bull fucking shit. [citation needed] you hallucinating motherfucker.
Just yet another example with the current system of taking money from someone at gunpoint to give to someone else. The government giveth the government taketh. This is exactly why the founding fathers never included a safety net into the constitution. They actually created the 9th and 10th amendments just so this wouldn't happen. Now those who are hooked onto government grants to go to school they must do the will of whoever pays the most. Remember, he who pays the piper gets to pick the song and the MAFIAA members are picking the song.
It is time to get the goveernment back to within constitutional limits, time to vote Libertarian.
--
A vote against a libertarian candidate is
a vote to abolish the constitution itself.
We don't need education anyway. According to the POTUS, thousands of Einsteins and pouring across the border every day! We're saved!