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Democratic Senator and senate majority leader Harry Reid introduced an amendment to the bill that deals with "campus-based digital theft prevention." The amendment would essentially keep track of the state of copyright infringement at every university that receives federal funds and force the schools with the worst track records to take proactive measures against infringement.Reid specifically wants to single out 25 universities that receive the highest amount of DMCA takedown notices - something that is strikingly similar to a list the RIAA published earlier this year. Those 25 schools would then have to teach copyright to their students, report back to the federal government about the success of these lessons and tweak their anti-piracy message if it isn't successful enough.But wait, that's not all. Schools would also have to tamper with their students' net access. From the proposed amendment:"Each eligible institution (...) shall (...) provide evidence to the Secretary that the institution has developed a plan for implementing a technology-based deterrent to prevent the illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property."Companies like Safemedia and entertainment industry lobbyists have been making their rounds in Washington lately to get P2P filtering on campus mandated by law. Looks like these effords are starting to pay off.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has withdrawn anti-file sharing legislation that had drawn yowls of protest from universities this week.Reid, without explanation, on Monday nixed his own amendment that would have required colleges and universities--in exchange for federal funding--to use technology to "prevent the illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property." Instead, Reid replaced it with a diluted version merely instructing higher ed institutions to advise their students not to commit copyright infringement and tell students what actions they're taking to prevent "unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material" through campus networks.
