Year in Review: Higher Education Opportunity Act

The second main piece of legislation passed in the United States with respect to copyright infringement was the Higher Education Act (HR 4137) which was passed in August 2008.[1] This Bill included provisions forcing colleges to take steps to address file sharing on university networks.[2]

In October 2008 The Association for Computer Machinery issued a report called ‘The Campus Cost of P2P Compliance’ which considered the circumstances of 321 colleges and universities and found that some colleges would incur annual expenses of up to $500,000 to comply with the legislative requirements.[3] Of particular concern was the impact on community colleges which do not offer on campus living arrangements and who would incur the same expenses as other institutions despite there being far less likelihood of infringing activity on their networks.[4]

Colleges will be required to minimise the incidence of file sharing on their networks which may be achieved through a number of measures including providing access to legal downloads services, content usage policies and education campaigns.[5]

With respect to content filtering The Commons Solutions Group which is comprised of 25 educational institutions examined the leading content filtering technologies available and concluded that they were costly, inefficient and could prevent lawful communication.[6] Filtering is not mandatory at this stage but it is anticipated that the content industry is likely to lobby for this to be introduced in the future.[7]

Without mandating a specific program to be implemented, and allowing for funding for its implementation, colleges that do not comply risk losing federal aid grant funding.[8]

[1] ZeroPaid, Anti-P2p Higher Education Act May Cost Some Colleges $500,000 Annually (24 October 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9817/Anti-P2P+Higher+Education+Act+May+Cost+Some+Colleges+%24500%2C000+Annually> at 25 October 2008; CNet News, Mixed reviews for illegal file-sharing on campus (1 August 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10005089-93.html> at 12 August 2008; EFFector, As Evidence of Piracy Weakens, House Passes Overbearing "Campus Digital Theft Prevention" Requirements Vol. 21, No. 6 (22 February 2008) <http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/02/evidence-piracy-weakens-house-passes-overbearing-campus-digital-theft-prevention-r> at 25 February 2008
[2] ZeroPaid, Anti-P2p Higher Education Act May Cost Some Colleges $500,000 Annually (24 October 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9817/Anti-P2P+Higher+Education+Act+May+Cost+Some+Colleges+%24500%2C000+Annually> at 25 October 2008
[3] ZeroPaid, Anti-P2p Higher Education Act May Cost Some Colleges $500,000 Annually (24 October 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9817/Anti-P2P+Higher+Education+Act+May+Cost+Some+Colleges+%24500%2C000+Annually> at 25 October 2008
[4] ZeroPaid, Anti-P2p Higher Education Act May Cost Some Colleges $500,000 Annually (24 October 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9817/Anti-P2P+Higher+Education+Act+May+Cost+Some+Colleges+%24500%2C000+Annually> at 25 October 2008
[5] ArsTechnica, Big content goes after colleges through funding bills (15 April 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080415-big-content-goes-after-college-p2p-through-funding-bills.html> at 17 April 2008
[6] ZeroPaid, Universities Penalized for Past RIAA Cooperation (14 August 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9698/Universities+Penalized+for+Past+RIAA+Cooperation> at 20 August 2008
[7] TechDirt, Congress Moves Forward With Plan To Make Universities Copyright Cops (31 July 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080731/0259111850.shtml> at 6 August 2008
[8] CNet News, Mixed reviews for illegal file-sharing on campus (1 August 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10005089-93.html> at 12 August 2008