MPAA Explains Why It's Okay To Tie Federal Funds To Blocking File Sharing

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

MPAA Explains Why It's Okay To Tie Federal Funds To Blocking File  
Sharing
from the because-we-say-so,-dammit dept
While Congress' new bill on education funding may not be as bad as  
some are making it out to be, it still seems quite questionable that  
Congress appears to be regulating the idea that universities need to  
do the kind of marketing and educational campaigns that the recording  
industry cannot. We've asked supporters of the bill to explain how it  
could possibly make sense to mandate such things, and the MPAA's top  
lawyer, Fritz Attaway, has given his answer, claiming that it's  
because the internet is "used primarily to allow college students to  
traffic in infringing content," while being subsidized by gov't funds.  
It would be nice if Attaway or someone else at the MPAA could actually  
back up the claim that the primary use of the internet by students is  
infringement. While I wouldn't doubt that it's a popular use, to say  
that it's the primary use is hard to believe -- unless you count  
things like visiting Facebook pages, using Google and sending emails  
as "infringement." At the same time, this doesn't seem to support the  
reasons for this bill. After all, many kids on college campuses own  
cars -- and I'd imagine that most of those students break the speed  
limit frequently enough. Yet, we don't see any bills being proposed in  
Congress that would prevent financial aid funding unless universities  
start handing out more speeding tickets and put in place plans to  
offer public transportation. So why should they do that for copyright  
infringement?

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