Los Angeles - Legal download services are gaining traction among U.S. universities, as 15% already offer such a piracy-alternative while another 17% either plan to offer or are considering adding one, Ars Technica reported, citing a new survey from Educase, which represents campus IT professionals.

Washington - Congress last week approved a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, a wide-ranging bill covering U.S. universities that includes controversial new provisions governing how schools deal with file-sharing on campus.

Washington - The U.S. House on Thursday approved an education bill that includes provisions stating that universities which receive federal funding need to come up with technological deterrents to campus file-sharing, and look towards offering legal alternatives, CNET News.com reported. The provisions are part of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, and were applauded by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), while being derided by university groups like Educase and the Association of American Universities.

Washington - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has admitted there was a "human error" in a 2005 study on illegal downloading it commissioned, which attributed 40% of the movie industry industry's domestic losses from illegal downloading to college students -- a figure it now pegs at around 15%, the Associated Press reported. "We take this error very seriously and have taken strong and immediate action to both investigate the root cause of this problem as well as substantiate the accuracy of the latest report," the group said.