A group of computer scientists in academe, industry, and government is urging some members of the Senate and House of Representatives to oppose legislation that would encourage or require colleges to install network filters to inhibit illegal sharing of music and video files. The group, the Association for Computing Machinery, stated in a letter dated today that filters are costly, ineffective, and undermine network security and the rights of researchers. The warning comes as House and Senate negotiators seek agreement on renewal of the Higher Education Act, which includes provisions to deter file sharing on college campuses. Colleges are fighting the House bill provision, since it would prod colleges to use filters.
“There are known counters to filtering technology,” the letter reads. “Motivated content thieves can encrypt their Internet traffic or use other obfuscation methods to bypass filters that are looking for some specific known signature of the copyrighted work.”
The letters is addressed to the chairman and ranking minority members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and of the House Committee on Education and Labor. —Andrea L. Foster
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