The U.S. House of Representatives is not the only legislative group that is trying to force colleges to be aggressive in stopping students who swap music and video files illegally online. A bill introduced last month in the Tennessee State Senate, SB 3974, would force public colleges in the state to police their networks to prevent illegal file sharing.
The bill would require colleges to have a policy that prohibits infringement of copyrighted works via the institutions’ networks, and to analyze their networks to determine whether they are being used “to transmit copyrighted works.” The legislation would also demand that colleges either certify to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission that their networks are not used to transmit copyrighted material, or take steps to prevent the online infringement of such works. A companion bill has been introduced in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to discuss the bill Wednesday.
Last year the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America named the University of Tennessee among the campuses with the worst records of online copyright infringement. —Andrea L. Foster
Update: Committee has deferred taking up the bill until March 5.
