New Bill Before Congress, To Help Colleges Fight Piracy.

A bill was introduced before the House Committee on Education and Labor by Rep. Ric Keller [R-FL], that will amend the Higher Education Act,

...[which] supplies federal money to universities, allowing that money to be used for programs that reduce illegal downloading of copyrighted content.

It is unclear right now what this bill fully entails, because the full text has not yet been released to the public.

It seems though that the lobbyists for the big entertainment companies are making a push for this. The bill was introduced the same week that the RIAA sent out pre-litigation letters to students of colleges nation-wide, and now this week the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has named the top 25 movie piracy schools. The Higher Education Act is due to expire this summer, and there is sure to be a push to extend the life of the HEA. The big companies may be trying to bury this into the renewal so that they have another way of trying to control college students.