MPAA Started Warning College Students

The Motion Picture Association of America started sending out warning letters to higher education institutions in the US, calling them to defend the interests of the entertainment industry. Besides, the MPAA made an announcement that it is going to start sending notifications to college and university students involved in unauthorized sharing of films on campus networks. Apparently, those students who fail to abide will face the consequences.

The Recording Industry Association of America is well-known for pursuing college students with DMCA takedown notices and full lawsuits. Meanwhile, the MPAA didn’t seem to be active on this front. Of course, individual film companies sent lots of infringement notices, but all those campaigns had nothing to do with the MPAA, until now.

Now the MPAA is ready to notify all college presidents that it is going to change that policy. In the meantime, the entertainment industry outfit will call institutions to do their best to stop unauthorized downloading on college campus networks.

The United States enforced a new requirement for educational institutions to stop illegal file-sharing on their networks back this summer. The law actually puts defiant colleges at risk of losing federal funding in case they fail to stop the illegal activity. With all this in mind, the MPAA wrote a letter to the universities, where it politely asks the schools to help the entertainment industry fight the piracy. At the same time, between the lines the copyright outfit also noted that colleges, which won’t be working hard enough to implement proper policies, may lose federal funding.

The MPAA added that it will also get involved in sending notifications to higher education institutions for any unauthorized activity detected. However, the Motion Pictures Association of America doesn’t just warn schools, it also offers solutions. For example, it recommends the universities to block their students and employees access to illegal websites. This literally means filtering BitTorrent search engines and indexes like TPB and isoHunt.

Commercial censorship is not the only way of fighting piracy. The MPAA’s suggestions also include less aggressive methods like so called “educational seminars” and monitoring the downloading habits of college students.