Download A Song & Lose Your Student Loan

[DudeAsInCool]

"On Nov 22 the House Education and Labor Committee approved H.R. 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (COAA). The name sounds like something everyone can support--but the devil is truly in the details," according to an article published by Wiretap, a progressive magazine.

Here are the details:

Page 411 of this 747-page bill is "Section 494(A): CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION" wherein the bill's meaning takes a serious detour from its title. To prevent college students from illegally accessing copyrighted material, the section says all schools shall (when you see the word "shall" in a law, it's a requirement, not a suggestion):

1) Have "a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property"

and

2) Have "a plan to explore technology based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity."

"The craziest thing about this is that noncompliant schools would lose all their federal funding, for all their students. No more Pell Grants. No more federal financial aid. No more student loans. This is not just draconian punishment for students who break the law, this punishes all students at that institution even if they did nothing!"

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[method77]

unbelievable

[DudeAsInCool]

Ars Technica notes, "Opponents of the bill's IP provisions had hoped that the MPAA's inaccurate numbers might derail that section of the legislation, but that does not appear to have happened. For the last several years, the MPAA has claimed that college students are responsible for 44 percent of film piracy "losses" in the US; after reviewing the numbers recently, though, the MPAA realized that a mistake had been made. The numbers have since been revised downward by nearly two-thirds."

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Hopefully, the Senate will reject the bill.

[Malicious Intent]

I wished my student loan would go away!