stupid politicos freak out about p2p at universities
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-986143.html
Key politicians chided universities on Wednesday for not doing enough to limit peer-to-peer piracy, calling unauthorized copying a federal crime that should be punished appropriately.
Members of the House of Representtives subcommittee that oversees copyright law said at a hearing that peer-to-peer piracy was a crime under a 1997 federal law, but universities continued to treat file-swapping as a minor infraction of campus disciplinary codes.
“If on your campus you had an assault and battery or a murder, you’d go down to the district attorney’s office and deal with it that way,” said Rep. William Jenkins, R-Tenn.
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i think it’s unconscionable to compare music/software piracy, with violent crime. studies have shown that music downloading has had a negligible effect on record sales, and software piracy by college students isn’t really the cause of the software industries woes (look instead to profit minded pirates overseas). we need to reevaluate our laws when property (and ridiculous electronic intellectual property at that) is valued just as highly as human life.