Hollywood backs Reid anti-student act
p2pnet news | politics:- Dan Glickman, the man who runs Hollywood’s MPAA, is delighted and what’s pleasing him is the manner in which the entertainment industry’s Higher Education Reauthorization Act is being fast-tracked through the US senate.
Shepherded on the cartel’s behalf by senate majority leader Harry Reid, it’ll force universities across America into a more invidious position than they’re in already.
Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA is currently using university administrative and teaching staffs to persuade students it’s in their interests to sign a so-called settlement document which, for $3,000, supposedly removes the threat of a potential lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement.
However, what’s really happening is signees are spending their own money to hand the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) incriminating information about themselves it wouldn’t otherwise have been able to get.
For his part, Glickman has “commended” Reid for his “leadership” on this “critical” [to Hollywood] issue.
“Some college students are abusing powerful taxpayer funded computer networks to download and distribute movies and other copyrighted material which is why we are committed to working with universities to develop and implement plans to address this problem,” he says.
The studios and record labels themselves rely on taxpayer- and parent-funded university resources to pay for actions which benefit only the studios and record labels, in the process seriously undermining the schools’ abilities to function freely and properly.
Instead of worrying about exams, students are worrying about ending up on an MPAA and/or RIAA hit list knowing full well that if that happens, the chances of them receive support or advice from school legal departments are slim to zero.
If the bill gets through, American universities will be quite literally working for the recording and movie studios with law enforcement agencies further burdened with the task of policing American youth to bring them into line with corporate interests.
Thanks to the industry, all American students are automatically classified as potential criminals and under the proposed act, US universities everywhere would therefore be forced to use their staffs to detail precisely how they’ll:
- ‘Educate’ students on the potential civil and criminal consequences for the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material .
- “Prevent and detect” unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials on university networks.
- Stop unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing, including disciplinary actions against individuals who engage in the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material on university computer systems.
Hollywood, meanwhile, is “looking forward to working with Members of the House who are also interested in this important issue when they take up this legislation in the fall,” says Glickman.
It’s absolutely paramount to vested entertainment industry interests to have the Reid Bill adopted before the Bush government falls.
Meanwhile, the true horror is: given their global nature, Hollywood (in the shape of Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney) and the Big 4 record labels (Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG) will be lobbying to have similar laws promulgated in every country around the world, with weak governments such as those in Canada and Sweden leading the way to fall in line.
Also See:
fast-tracked – Entertainment blacklist for US schools, July 24, 2007
in their interests – RIAA student victimisation campaign, July 21, 2007
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July 24th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Update…
July 24, 2007 9:51 AM PDT
Universities win Senate fight over anti-P2P proposal
Posted by Declan McCullagh
Updated 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. The revised version was tacked onto the Higher Education Reauthorization Act on Tuesday, a Reid spokesman said in a telephone conversation, which the Senate then approved by a 95-0 vote.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9749071-7.html