Universities to police file sharing or lose funds?

ArsTechnologica reports on the new bill being put before Congress, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007. Although the bill is a financial aid bill for US colleges and universities, it contains a number of provisions relating to copyright. Most surprising are the fact that universities will have to investigate technological deterents to their students committing copyright infringment, at pain of losing their financial aid, and will also have to provide legal alternatives to P2P file sharing, such as subscriptions to legitimate file-sharing sites.

The IPKat says that while colleges may unwittingly provide opportunities for students to engage in copyright infringement, to make educational funding dependent on the enforcement of other peoples’ private rights is worrying.