Several friends of mine are in a pirate book club. They aren’t committed to only reading materially illegally posted on a secret bit-torrent site based in international waters. The book club (as one put it) is “a change to sit around and say aaargh a lot.”
Today’s Los Angeles Times includes the headline “Bill targets piracy at colleges”. Fortunately the story isn’t about cracking down on undergraduates wearing eye-patches and flying Jolly Rogers from their dorm rooms. Instead the piece talks about provisions in the House version of College Opportunity and Affordability Act (HR 4137), specifically section 494 (page 411 of the GPO pdf) that reads (I’ve cleaned up the formatting for ease of reading):
SEC. 494. CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Each eligible institution participating in any program under this title shall to the extent practicable—
(1) make publicly available to their students and employees, the policies and procedures related to the illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials required to be disclosed under section 485(a)(1)(P); and
(2) develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity.
(b) GRANTS.—
(1) PROGRAM AUTHORITY.—The Secretary may make grants to institutions of higher education, or consortia of such institutions, and enter into contracts with such institutions, consortia, and other organizations, to develop, implement, operate, improve, and disseminate programs of prevention, education, and cost-effective technological solutions, to reduce and eliminate the illegal downloading and distribution of intellectual property. Such grants or contracts may also be used for the support of a higher education centers that will provide training, technical assistance, evaluation, dissemination, and associated services and assistance to the higher education community as determined by the Secretary and institutions of higher education.
Pretty benign stuff – the asserted potential penalties for not recycling at some institutions are harsher. This section pretty much says universities that get government money have to encourage their students and staff not to steal stuff, and to try to find ways to keep folks from stealing stuff, and if they find such ways the government will give them even more money. Seems like a reasonable – even generous – request. Basically some students are stealing a lot of intellectual property on college campuses and the government (that partially funds those campuses) is saying “you should probably tell your students to stop taking stuff that doesn’t belong to them.”
Unfortunately that’s not the debate we’re having. Instead we’re talking about pirates.
Those interested in copyright protection (as I am as a member of the board of the Copyright Alliance and an advisor on the issue to Vin Di Bona Productions) need to leave the arrghing to book clubs and costume parties, and find a new metaphor to describe our efforts to stop people from stealing our stuff.
