February 25, 2008
Tennessee Eyes Bill to Make Colleges Stop Online File Sharing
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.
Posted on Monday February 25, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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I think it would be simpler if the state legislature just required Tennessee colleges to abide by the Copyright Law of the United States, the Berne Convention, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the TEACH Act. I mean, that’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?
— Philip J Tramdack Feb 26, 07:46 AM #
Why are not-for-profit colleges expected to expend extra money, time and resources to protect for-profit company interests? Complying with the law should not require colleges to act as surrogate “police investigators” for private companies. If protection of copyright is of such importance to the Tennessee legislature and Congress, then they need to fund the appropriate law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute alleged violations, just as would be done for any other violation of the law.
— Rick Feb 26, 10:19 AM #