Techdirt: Congress Moves Forward With Required University Subsidies To Napster, Ruckus

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

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071115/173305.shtml

from the business-as-usual dept
Earlier this week, we wrote about how Congress had slipped a provision  
into the Higher Education Act that would require universities to put  
in place a plan to have published policies on unauthorized file  
sharing and to also "develop a plan" to offer "legal alternatives"  
such as Napster or Ruckus. Of course, some would point out that many  
file sharing systems, by themselves are legal. It's just that some  
people are using them for things that break the law. Really, what this  
bill represents is a gov't backed subsidy for Napster and Ruckus,  
forcing colleges to offer them even if their students don't want it.  
It's not clear, at all, why Congress should be in the business of  
demanding a particular type of music delivery system be offered on  
college campuses. The announcement of the bill resulted in plenty of  
attention, leading the House committee that was debating the Act to  
distribute a "fact sheet" that is anything but factual. It accused  
those criticizing the bill of being "supporters of intellectual  
property theft." That is not the case at all. In fact, it's rather  
insulting that Congress would automatically assume that anyone who  
questions why Congress is forcing universities to pay for commercial  
music distribution systems is a "supporter of intellectual property  
theft."

Of course, when the committee is calling anyone who opposes such a  
plan as being a supporter of theft, it's no surprise that they  
wouldn't take any of the criticisms seriously andmoved forward with  
the bill without any changes to the controversial section. They also  
dismissed the claims that universities who don't sign up for Napster  
or Ruckus would lose financial aid funding, though, that's clearly  
what the bill allows to happen -- and you know that the RIAA and MPAA  
(and Napster and Ruckus, for that matter) will push to make it a  
viable threat.

Either way, it would be nice for Congressional supporters to answer  
this simple question: Why is it any part of Congress's business to  
mandate that universities sign up for a commercial music distribution  
service?

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