The U.S. House of Representatives Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness met Tuesday to discuss the prevalence of illegal downloading of copyrighted materials among college students and on college campuses.
In the hearing, entitled "The Internet and the College Campus: How the Entertainment Industry and Higher Education are Working to Combat Illegal Piracy," subcommittee members were joined by higher education experts and representatives of the entertainment industry.
According to Rich Taylor, Motion Picture Association of America senior vice president for external affairs and education, who was present at the hearing, the college students account for a large percentage of illegal downloading.
"Forty-four percent of losses in the United States, around $500 million, can be traced to college students," Taylor said.
Taylor also said that the purpose of the hearing was to communicate that illegal downloading is an issue with implications for higher education, as well as the entertainment industry, pointing out the strain on networks and security concerns for institutions of higher learning.
"What we are trying to do as a recoding industry and a film industry is not to crush the ability to get entertainment online," Taylor said. "But the thievery of copyrighted material has to be dialed down."
According to Shirley Payne, director of security coordination and policy for Information Technology and Communication, the University works to stop illegal downloading through both policy and education.
"It is against our policy for faculty, staff or students to use the University equipment or network to violate copyright laws," Payne said. "It is federal law, and we will do what we can to enforce federal law."
If ITC receives a notice from entertainment industry representations stating someone has violated copyright laws on their network, a notice is subsequently sent to the violator. If the copyrighted material is not removed, the violator's computer is disconnected until ITC is certain the material has been removed.
Although Payne would not comment on the number of notices the University receives, she did state that no case of illegal downloading at the University has been turned over to the judicial process.
Many universities have turned to providing legal alternatives to downloading, such as a mandatory fee to buy media, which can be shared by students on their network.
According to Payne, such alternatives have been discussed, but not extensively pursued, at the University.
"We surveyed students and identified services that could be used," Payne said. "The conclusion was that the service was not particularly desired or wouldn't be successful. At that point it didn't make sense, but that is not to say it won't be looked at again or that students couldn't bring it up themselves"
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