Rich Fiscus
21 Nov 2007 13:50
MPAA Washington general Counsel Fritz Attaway doesn't see anything wrong with a proposed law that would require universities to provide students with some kind of alternative to illegal P2P downloads in order to reduce piracy on college campuses. While university officials and consumer rights groups have been critical of the bill's wording, proponents say that if universities are unable or unwilling to implement such a plan there would be no repercussions under the law.
While participating in a panel on Monday organized by the Federal Communications Bar Association Attaway said "When the government is subsidizing universities...and it discovers that those universities are spending a lot of taxpayers' money to build digital networks that are being used primarily to allow college students to traffic in infringing content, I think it's perfectly legitimate for Congress to say, wait a minute, if we're giving you money, we don't want it to be used to help college kids infringe copyright."
Another panel member, Gigi Sohn, president of the digital-rights advocacy group Public Knowledge disagreed, asking "Why do you put things in bills that you don't want to enforce at some point?." She added "Even if I agree, and I don't, that it's toothless, I don't want that language in there for some other Congress to give it some teeth."
Her view is clearly shared by officials from many universities.
Source: CNet News