New U.S. Department of Education regulations may affect a university’s approach to illegal file sharing, but UT students will not notice any changes to the University’s already comprehensive policy.
The new rules, published last week in the Federal Register, require higher education institutions to document plans to prevent illegal file sharing, educate students about copyright laws and provide students with legal alternatives to downloading. The requirements take effect in July 2010, and failure to comply would result in cuts of federal financial aid.
UT is making the necessary changes to comply with new federal illegal file-sharing regulations, said William Green, director of networking and telecommunications for the University’s Information Technology Services.
“The University has a number of measures in place,” Green said. “We have been aware of this legislation for some time and have been making the necessary changes to ensure our compliance and have confidence in our current methods.”
Green said the University has a successful track record in combating illegal file sharing. He said statistics show UT student upload ratios are less than those of average broadband users.
Some of the University’s established piracy prevention measures include required education programs, bandwidth measuring tools and policies to deal with violations. He said the University plans to increase communication with students by including file-sharing information in letters sent to students’ homes.
Other universities are similarly prepared for the new rules. Pierce Cantrell, vice president and associate provost for informational technology at Texas A&M, said the policies at that university already meet most of the new requirements.
“We may have to more formally document all of the things that we’re doing, which is a new requirement,” Cantrell said. “But pretty much what we have in place meets all of those proposed parts of the new rules.”
The Department of Education‘s regulations only affect higher education institutions and not Internet service providers such as Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner.
“I think there is a lot of file sharing that goes on on commercial Internet providers. And I do feel that universities are unfairly targeted,” Cantrell said. “But I think the rules that have come out are ones we can live with.”
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