Whilst the headline may look dramatic, the sorry fact is its totally true
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-piracy16mar16,1,3958660.storyColleges and universities that take part in federal financial aid programs will be under new obligations to take steps to prevent illegal downloads of music, movies and other copyrighted material if legislation overwhelmingly passed by the House last month becomes law.
A two-page portion of the 800-page College Opportunity and Affordability Act:H.R.4137: has raised alarms in the higher- education community. It would hold schools disproportionately responsible, education groups say, for activities that take place mostly off-campus.
The main purpose of the legislation, which the House approved 354-58, is to make college more affordable to low- and middle-income families.
But the anti-piracy provision could increase student costs, Worona said. It would mandate that schools develop plans to offer alternatives to illegal downloading and to explore technological deterrents.
Worona called the mandate "expensive, ineffective, inappropriate and unnecessary" and expressed concern that schools could be penalized for failing to come up with such plans.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) had intended to introduce an amendment that no school failing to devise plans "shall be denied or given reduced federal funding," but after tornadoes struck his state he returned to his district to deal with the aftermath -- and missed a key procedural vote to attach his language to the bill.
So what are we left with here ?
instead of offering a sorely neded helping hand to get more poor folks into education this proposed bill has been hijacked by the interests of a selfish and anti democratic monopoly organisation that itself pays no taxes, for the sole aim of ensuring a major proportion of the federal money is wasted on purchasing a cartel owned companies anti-piracy solution, yes folks the big shakedown, pay for our solution or face threats of litigation and increased publicity from our media parent groups.
Whilst this sort of trick is fine for the mafia to use, to see it being used to syphon off federaly earmarked education dollars to put in place a solution with the usual price tag of $100,000 a pop or face litigation theats and worse under this new bill ( the loss of federal funding completely ) is a public disgrace.
What value can ever be placed on education, whatever it is I,m sure its substantially more than the cost of a few mass produced mp3,s that in reality are worth at most 10 cents in the real world.
