Examining the State of Campus Piracy

As Congress prepares once again to quiz college administrators about their anti-computer-piracy policies, a group of campus and entertainment-industry officials has released a new report on the state of campus file swapping.

The report was written by the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, a consortium led by Graham B. Spanier, the president of Pennsylvania State University, and Cary H. Sherman, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America. For the most part, it recaps antipiracy developments over the past year—including the rise in popularity of legal downloading services, the industry’s crackdown on illegal file sharing on Internet2’s high-speed research network, and the Supreme Court’s decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd.

But the document also provides a few hints about future antipiracy tactics. It notes, for example, that colleges are struggling to stop students from using myTunes and ourTunes, a pair of programs that let users turn Apple’s iTunes into a music-swapping service. And, in a surprisingly stern tone, it chides campus administrators who have "yielded to complacency in their methods of addressing piracy on campus."

Mr. Spanier and Mr. Sherman will present the report to lawmakers tomorrow, at a hearing of a House of Representatives subcommittee on the Internet and intellectual property.