College Funding Bill Passes House, P2P Provision Intact 222
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the College Opportunity and Affordability Act passed through the House today with a vote of 354-58 and the anti-P2P provision is intact. That provision would require universities to filter P2P and to offer legal alternatives. They are claiming now, though, that universities would not lose federal funding if they fail to do this. Of course, an amendment that would have clarified that was withdrawn immediately after it was offered."
Of course (Score:3, Interesting)
It doesn't how it is claimed a law will be used (Score:3, Interesting)
In this case: even if the removal of funding doesn't occur immediately, if it is in the law it will most likely be used.
When was the last time that the government said "no, I don't need more power"?
A few major ones are Prohibition [wikipedia.org] and the 55 MPH speed limit [wikipedia.org]
Re:What's needed for this madness to stop (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:College = education. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think examples such as the DMCA should make us wary of how well-intentioned legislation can go wrong when you have technologically illiterate politicians guided by industry lobbyists doing the writing.
Re:Here is some Clarification (Score:5, Interesting)
Even so... IMHO this still opens the door to more Orwellian legislation, and provides further evidence of how industry pwnes our government.
Not really a win. (Score:5, Interesting)
The part about filtering P2P is disturbing but there's are plenty of good legal alternatives to RIAA crap [archive.org]. I'd love to see every university mirror the Internet Archive, Creative Commons and promote work from people in their community. Let's take that part of this stupid law and make something cool that will continue to bleed the RIAA out of existence.
The phrase "intellectual property" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What Will Harvard Do? (Score:2, Interesting)
So lies == bullshit laws now (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not really a win. (Score:3, Interesting)
There are alternatives to RIAA members. I am a big fan Epitaph/Hellcat records, and it seems really up in the air as to whether or not they are an RIAA member. Lord knows they don't exactly have bands signed that would put up with this nonsense. Anyways from Wikipeida:
However, the only source that has actually been used for these claims of membership is the official RIAA membership list, which has been disputed. As of this writing, not only is Epitaph listed as an official member, but Lookout! Records are once again listed, even though they were already falsely listed before.
Sorry that quote was a little long in the tooth, just wanted to clarify my point. And my point is, there are some pretty excellent alternatives to the big guns of the recording industry, as well as the fact that it would appear not everyone that deals with the RIAA is expressly condoning their behavior since they are in fact involved in the certification process of top selling records.. Granted Epitaph/Hellcat caters to a certain kind of music. The fact remains there are many smaller labels out there for everyone.
Seems like now, more than ever, would be a good time to support local artists and brick-and-mortar record stores that cater (however slight) to the independent and local music scenes. The Record Exchange - Boise, ID FTW
Re:Not really a win. (Score:3, Interesting)
With both parties being pro-industry, it seems at least in the US, that a lot of people are out of luck... As for class warfare, are you sure the war isn't over already, with the rich having "won"?
Wealthy Universities (Score:3, Interesting)