Congress cracks down on file sharing

Author: Andrew Fuller

Congress is aiming to combat illegal file sharing on college campuses in a new financial aid and education spending bill that recently received the approval of the House Education and Labor Committee. Strongly supported by the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act would require colleges to provide alternatives to illegal file sharing by offering programs such as Napster or Ruckus. The act would also compel institutions such as Middlebury to employ more expensive and effective file-sharing detection technologies. Colleges that fail to comply with the law would lose federal support for financial aid programs.

While supporters of the legislation seek to crack down on file sharing on college campuses, the act would affect schools like Middlebury that already work to deter illegal file sharing. According to Senior Network Architect Howie McCausland, the Middlebury network has been designed to deter file sharing while respecting students' privacy. The network firewall blocks certain Internet traffic, while the traffic shaper system gives priority to different traffic types in an attempt to prevent questionable Internet activity. Although total network traffic is monitored and controlled, Middlebury does not examine particular files or monitor any particular individual's activities.

While under the current system the entertainment industry has not launched legal action against the school, Middlebury does regularly deal with industry warnings.

"There have been no subpoenas, no lawsuits and no legal action of any kind against the College under the current system," said McCausland.

However, when Middlebury receives notices from the entertainment industry warning it of detected file sharing on the Middlebury network, the school sends cease and desist notices to suspected students.

"We tend to get no more than 10 [such notices] a month. Three or four years ago, we used to get four times as many," said Library and Information Services Policy Advisor Jeff Rehbach.

Many in the administration are concerned with the effectiveness and cost of the new legislation. The Motion Picture Association of America has suggested that if the bill becomes law, schools should use technologies like the Red Lambda and Audible Magic programs to filter network traffic and student file sharing.

However, according to Rehbach, "the technologies that are being recommended don't accurately identify all traffic." Middlebury would also have to pay for the programs, which can be expensive. The systems are "rumored to cost tens to hundreds of thousands to implement, but we do not have a price quote," said Rehbach.

Although following the law would likely be costly, Middlebury would lose federal support for its financial aid program if it did not comply. According to Director of Student Financial Services Kim Downs, five percent of Middlebury's grant budget for undergraduates is composed of the Federal Pell Grant program, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, Academic Competitiveness Grant Program and the SMART program.

"Those grants are for the neediest students," said Downs. If those programs weren't there, it would place a great deal of pressure on our budget.

The law would not only prevent Middlebury from receiving support for its grant programs, but would also remove loan support such as the Federal Perkins Loan Program and Federal Work Study Program. According to Downs, Middlebury's effort to decrease students' self-help portion of their financial aid packages would be more costly "if the Perkins and work study were removed. We would have to come up with that funding."

While the administration is concerned with the bill's progress through Congress, no conclusions have been reached on how Middlebury would deal with the requirements should the proposal become law.

"Like a lot of other institutions, we would take a very hard look at any potential law that seems to infringe on student rights," said Dean of the College Tim Spears. "We would follow the law, but it's too early to tell exactly what is going to happen."