Nashville - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen last week signed into law a bill that will compel universities in the state to invest in campus network anti-piracy technologies, should they receive a certain number of notices that their students are believed to be illegally downloading copyrighted material in a given year.

Passage of the bill was lauded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has sued tens of thousands of students for copyright infringement for file-sharing on campus networks.

Under the law, if a school received 50 or more notices of infringement by its students in the preceding year, it must pay to integrate "infringement suppression" technologies on their computer networks.

"We have all seen the effects illegal downloading has had on Music Row -- too many record stores have been shuttered and too many songwriters are out of the business of writing songs," said RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol.

"This bill, the first of its kind in the nation, addresses the issue of campus music theft in a state where the impact is felt more harshly than most."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties group that opposed the bill, noted that the law will cost schools in the state an initial estimated $9.5 million for software, hardware and personnel, as well as recurring annual costs of more than $1.5 million.

"It makes no sense to force universities to spend millions on technologies that will hobble innovation on campus while failing to stop file-sharing," the EFF said in a statement.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/5tayt (RIAA statement)

http://snipurl.com/5tazt (EFF statement)