Andre Yoskowitz
3 May 2007 19:39
US Congress has begun sending out "surveys" to the presidents of 19 leading Universities hoping to receive answers in regards to what the university is planning on doing to curb piracy on campus networks.
House Judiciary Committee member Lamar Smith (R-TX)however, made it clear that these surveys were not innocent. "If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act," Smith said in a statement.
The universities that received that survey are: Boston University, Columbia University, Duke University, Howard University, Michigan State University, North Carolina State University, Ohio University, Purdue University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Massachusetts at Boston, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Vanderbilt University.
"The fact that copyright piracy is not unique to college and university campuses is not an excuse for higher education officials to fail to take responsible steps to eliminate such activity nor to appropriately sanction such conduct when discovered," the letter reads.
The universities in question were pulled from a pair of lists created by the RIAA and the MPAA that named the top piracy schools in the nation.
The surveys ask the universities for a detailed list, from 2002-on, of the number of students that have been involved in piracy.
Other questions in the survey included asking "whether the institution offers discounts or site licensing for legitimate online services," whether the schools provided cable or satellite TV, and whether the schools agree with a statement made by the president of Purdue in which he responded to the RIAA saying that "asking us to pursue an investigation and as the service provider, we don't see that as our role."
"We want to know exactly what they plan to do to stop illegal downloading on their campuses," Smith continued in a statement. "Universities have a moral and legal obligation to ensure students do not use campus computers for illegal downloading. These schools do not give away their intellectual property for free, and they should not expect musicians to do so."
Congress is requiring that the universities provide detailed answers to the questions by May 31st. Whether all the universities will respond is another question as I'm sure many of these universities will not want to go on record, especially if their answers are not what Congress wants to hear.
Source:
Arstechnica