Bill Cuts Financial Aid if Campus File-Sharing Persists

Universities could lose financial aid for students if they are not able to reduce the amount of illegal file-sharing taking place on their college networks, according to a new education bill introduced into Congress on Friday.

The bill (PDF), under a section titled "Campus-Based Digital Theft Prevention," would require all institutions participating in the financial aid program to take further measures in both displaying and enforcing its policies on illegal downloading.

Specifically, the bill would force universities to "develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution" as well as "explore technology-based deterrents" to illegal P2P sharing. Many believe that such "alternatives" could include university-wide subscriptions to services like Napster or Ruckus an ad-supported music service that offers free music to college students.

According to the bill, failure to comply with the recommendation would mean drastic consequences.

In response to the bill, university faculty have written an open letter to the bill's primary sponsor, Congressman George Miller, stating: "?it is our understanding that the consequences of the Secretary deciding that a targeted institution has failed to prevent illegal file sharing would be loss of Title IV student aid eligibility. Such an extraordinarily inappropriate and punitive outcome would result in all students on that campus losing their federal financial aid."

That's right ? all students, even those who don't participate
in illegal downloading or own a computer period would be impacted by this bill.

The letter, which was signed by the presidents of Stanford and Penn State, the chancellor of the University of Maryland and the general counsel of Yale, makes the point that universities are already taking measures to reduce illegal fire sharing.

Additionally, universities point out that the proposal applies only to higher-education schools -- "which industry leaders admit are responsible for only a small fraction of illegal file sharing"-- as opposed to other ISPs associated with the problem.

Given the strong opposition, we can only hope that the proposal is struck down for its sweeping punishments before amendments are made to the Higher Education Act. After all, what sense does it make to punish all students for the actions of a few?

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