Buried in the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (H.R. 4137), which passed 354 - 58 in the house last week, are some chilling and expensive provisions requiring Universities to monitor the file sharing conducted by students on campus networks, or risk loosing accreditation.

Section 488 of the bill requires institutions that receive Federal student aid funds to adopt policies and sanctions related to copyright infringement, including:

• an annual statement warning students that unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material (file sharing) may subject the students to civil and criminal liabilities;
• a summary of the penalties for violation of Federal copyright laws;
• a description of the institution’s policies for punishing student file sharing; and
• a description of the institution’s efforts to prevent and detect file sharing.

Section 494 of the bill entitled “CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION” requires each Federal student aid receiving institution to–

• make available to their students information related to the illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials and
• develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity.

The White House released a critical statement of the bill on February 6, 2008, mainly opposing racial quotas. The new level of (expensive) oversight that universities would need to conduct in order to continue receiving Federal student aid funds received no mention.

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