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Rep wants report on colleges' anti-piracy efforts
House subcommittee holds hearing on how colleges address issue
By Ricardo Lozano
Many universities are lax in their enforcement of digital piracy laws, said the congressman who *A recent congressional subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, asked the Government Accountability Office to create a report measuring and ranking the effectiveness of colleges' anti-piracy efforts.
The announcement followed a special hearing of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property with testimony given by a panel of entertainment and college officials. The witnesses included the Movie Producers Association of America, music subscription service Ruckus and officials from UT and the University of Florida. The hearing was an opportunity to gather information on how universities address illegal downloading and file-sharing on campus, Smith said. Officials praised the University of Florida's Icarus program, which kicks students off Florida's Internet network if the program detects they are connecting to a peer-to-peer program. P2P programs are frequently used for downloading music and movies. The Icarus program has been labeled "invasive" and "evil" by the University of Florida's own student paper, but the committee considered the program a positive step forward. Smith called the software "great." Daniel Updegrove, UT-Austin vice president of information technology, was among those who gave testimony and fielded questions. Smith asked Updegrove if the University would consider implementing Icarus, which will be released soon for public use. Updegrove said the University probably would not use the program because of privacy and academic freedom issues. "We could eliminate student traffic tickets if we banned cars, but we don't want to go that far," Updegrove said. Blair Jones, a Smith spokesman, said the congressman was not endorsing any particular product or telling the University what it should do. Smith was simply intrigued by the fact that the University of Florida saved $500,000 from not having to expand the network to deal with the illegal downloading of large files. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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