AND I have them on double, secret probation!
Posted on 02/27/2003 11:29:47 AM PST by weegee
Arrests urged to foil Web piracy on campus
By ANGEL WILSON COX NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Colleges need to monitor campus Internet activity more closely and possibly arrest students who download copyrighted material for free, members of a congressional panel said yesterday.
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said students who download music and movies from file-sharing Web sites are clearly breaking copyright laws.
"It's electronic theft, plain and simple," said Wexler, a member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts, the Internet, and intellectual property.
Lesser-known artists are being forced to find other lines of work because they are not being compensated for the use of their material, he said.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Internet piracy should be treated just like any other crime. She said universities should consider criminal arrests instead of simply warning or talking to "hard-core offenders," students who download and distribute large quantities of copyrighted material.
If universities are not willing to "get tough, we're just wasting everyone's time," she said.
Universities are seen as centers of digital piracy, because students are eager consumers of music and movies and because many dorm rooms are equipped with ultra-high-speed fiber-optic Internet connections.
Hilary Rosen, the Recording Industry Association of America's chairman and chief executive officer, said laws against copyright infringement are adequate, but they are not being enforced.
Rosen said the level of piracy overall is giving the recording industry a financial blow.
The RIAA estimates that more than 2.6 billion music files are illegally downloaded each month on the Internet.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology -- which lets Internet users search one another's personal computers for files to share -- "has the potential to expand dramatically the ease, speed, and breath of information exchange," agreed Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University.
Although universities want to stop piracy, Spanier said he hoped entertainment industry officials and policy-makers understand that it has to be done "without at the same time eliminating legitimate uses of P2P technologies; without constricting academic freedom and the free and open exchange of information . . . and without invading the privacy of our students, faculty and staff."
Colleges can't prosecute people. Only local criminal justice prosecutors can.
Kicking the kids off campus would be enough punishment. Stick 'em with dial-up connections.
AND I have them on double, secret probation!
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