A new, RIAA-backed law in Tennessee will force Universities to filter their networks for copyrighted materials. The government’s estimation of how much it will cost exceeds $10 million, but more worrying is the trend towards networks filtered with systems that do not work and support legacy businesses at the expense of users. The massive lobbying efforts which made this law happen relies on the inaccurate piracy statistics that the big content industry often propagates. However, as Richard Esguerra of EFF explains, filtering is next to useless due to encryption and the willingness of students to swap media through non-network means (external hard drives and iPods). What filtering will do is hamper education and innovation – media studies programs will be unable to make use of fair use when sending files, for example.

Obviously, this is an abhorrent trend that Students for Free Culture opposes. For more information, check out EFF’s white paper on the subject and EDUCAUSE’s information.

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