"Big Brother Amendment" Requires Student Monitoring and Annual Reports

7/23/2007

"Big Brother Amendment" Requires Student Monitoring and Annual Reports

RIAA to Force Universities to Spy on Students with Public Funds

  WASHINGTON –Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s planned introduction of an amendment to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act in the United States Senate is a disturbing misallocation of efforts and taxpayer funds according to the Digital Freedom Campaign.  The amendment, which will reportedly be offered by Majority Leader Reid during debate of S. 1642, would force Universities to adopt a policy and reporting procedure relating to, what the bill refers to as, "illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted material," and require the Secretary of Education annually report to Congress which 25 Universities have received the most infringement notices from copyright owners.

"This amendment is the just latest in a series of legislative efforts by wealthy record labels to require our tax dollars to be spent on policing college students," Jennifer Stoltz, a spokesperson for the Digital Freedom Campaign said.  "No one supports illegal downloading or file sharing, but the Digital Freedom Campaign and its members believe that Universities have more urgent things to do with their scarce budgets than collect information on their students for the government and for the RIAA.  Academic resources would be better spent educating students rather than spying on them at the behest of large corporations."
 
Earlier this year, the Digital Freedom Campaign launched 'Digital Freedom University,’ aimed at promoting the freedom of students to participate fully in the digital revolution. The initiative seeks to expand the ability of student leaders and campus-based artists and innovators to make their voice heard in Washington, D.C., as the rights to acquire and use content in the digital age is debated.  The Digital Freedom University chapters provide a base for students to help them better understand their "fair use" rights in the digital age, rights that protect their ability to listen to legally purchased content as they choose.  The Campaign, which is strongly opposed to illegal downloads and piracy, views students as an important cutting-edge audience that must be educated-not threatened.

The Digital Freedom Campaign fights for consumer rights in a digital age that enables literally anyone and everyone to be a creator, an innovator or an artist- to produce music, to create cutting-edge videos and photos, and to share their creative work.  Digital technology empowers individuals to enjoy these new works when, where, and how they want, and to participate in the artistic process.  These are basic freedoms that must be protected and nurtured.  The Digital Freedom campaign is dedicated to defending the rights of students, artists, innovators, and consumers to create and make lawful use of new technologies and lawfully acquired content free of unreasonable government restrictions and without fear of costly and abusive lawsuits.

 
For more information about the Digital Freedom campaign, please visit us at www.digitalfreedom.org.

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