Bill would force “top 25 piracy schools” to adopt anti-P2P technology

        Senator Reid promotes a bill that would support the RIAA by creating a ‘blacklist’ of schools with the highest number of illegal downloaders. The article discusses how the plan would prevent funding of the top 25 illegal downloading schools. These universities would then be forced to create and prove that they have created a technological way of stopping file-sharing.  The article also gives a prominent flaw of the plan, quesioning how the RIAA and MPAA would collect and represent their data since there would be a huge difference between schools with 70,000 students than those with 2,000. Basically, they would be getting their money from the larger state schools, and therefore the taxpayers.  The article also contains a quotation from the Digital Freedom Campaign which simply put, says that our universities have more important things to do than spy on their students. The article concludes with an update stating that the bill has been dropped for now.

    This article supports my thesis and confirms the idea that the RIAA is taking their fight too far. The information this article provides helps to prove that universities’ involvement should be minimal, if only because the other options are ridiculous. Putting schools on a ‘blacklist’ seems threatening and more similar to a way to make money from larger schools than it is to help artists. The sense of desperation portrayed in this article on the side of the RIAA aids my argument for less force on the universities since the RIAA's plan to involve universities is overflowing with flaws.