Another example of the writing being clearly written on the wall.
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College students, listen up: Don't mess with Texas.
Texas Rep. John Carter, that is.
"What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said in an interview. "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent."
But some university officials say they have stepped up efforts to stop piracy on their networks, and packing kids off to prison won't solve the problem.
"I can't see turning millions of college students into criminals," said Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University. "We'd have to build a lot of new prisons to hold the lawbreakers engaged in piracy of copyrighted materials."
Carter said making an example of a few college students could go a long way toward bringing home the message that sharing and duplicating copyrighted materials is wrong.
"Sometimes it takes the shock value of someone actually being punished," Carter said. "In this particular instance it might also send a message to these kids that are operating on these networks that, 'Hey, I better stop.'"
Students would learn quickly that copying even one album is not worth the potential punishment, he said.
"That information sent out to kids would be a real eye opener," he said. "I think you would have a 50 percent falloff, at least, of these people (who are pirating files).
"I'm not out to get the kids, I'm out to get their attention."
Carter, now in his first term in the House, served as a state district judge for 20 years in Williamson County, known as the Lone Star State's toughest county for criminals. If rampant file sharing was going on back home, he said, people would likely be prosecuted.
"A felony conviction is a terrible thing to have on your record," Carter said. Among other things, he said, a person would not be able to become an officer in the U.S. military if convicted of a felony.
A statement from the Recording Industry Association of America seems to back Carter's point of view.
"We support criminal prosecution of those who break the law and believe that effective deterrence is a necessary part of combating piracy," an RIAA spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail.
In October, the RIAA sent a letter to 2,300 colleges and universities urging them to "impose effective remedies against violators." In response, colleges have "dramatically" stepped up their responses to piracy problems, according to Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education.
"Although one would like to have a simple solution to the problem of misuse of university bandwidth, the congressman's proposed solution does not go to the core elements of the issue," Steinbach said of Carter's push to prosecute college file traders. "There is no simple answer."
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58081,00.html