New Antipiracy Measures Required from Colleges and Universities

Thursday President Bush signed a bill that calls for colleges and universities to move toward cutting back online piracy on campus.

The Higher Education Act includes stipulations which bring into spotlight the way online campus networks are used. It appears that universities will be asked to make some changes in the way they handle matters – like being more revealing to students, develop technology-based antipiracy programs and also offer legal and viable alternatives to illegal downloading. To stimulate this cause, the bill also comes with a federal grant program that would recompense this endeavor.

MPAA topper Dan Glickman emphasized the importance of the new act in an interview to Daily Variety: "This is a particularly significant achievement in that Congress has made clear that online campus piracy is a problem requiring national attention."

The higher education lobby was against the terms involved for the reason that they linked federal funding for programs like student assistance to compliance. An assurance came however from Glickman who declared that, "There's no immediate threat that any universities will lose funding. Only if they willfully do not comply."

According to Glickman many universities have already adopted some measures to reduce piracy occurring in their campuses.

Naturally, the MPAA will be generously offering its help by sending a briefing book to colleges and universities in which they will find about all the legal explanations with regard to the matter.