College Officials Turn Anti-Anti-Piracy

The recording industry and college students have been locked in battle for some time now. It’s simple really: college students are cheap and want to download music for free, while the recording industry wants money and does not want people to download music for free.
 

As a result the industry has been on an anti-piracy campaign that puts college administrations in the middle. School officials are supposed to track down the identities of IP addresses identified by the Recording Industry Association of America as illegal file-sharers so that the organization may threaten to sue said students.
 

And colleges have obliged in the past. However, as the recording industry requires more and more of them, taking away resources that could be used elsewhere, some universities are fighting back. Most recently, Central Michigan University filed a complaint against the investigators claiming that they are acting as unlicensed private eyes which violates state laws and impedes upon student privacy.
 

Other schools, such as Virginia Tech and University of Kansas, have also tried to stand up against the recording industry either by erasing logs sooner or stopping forwarding letters to students. But the behemoth music machine is a difficult beast to beat and since most schools complied in the past, they are finding it hard to resist now.
 

Although I appreciate universities looking out for their students, I do find it amusing that they are protecting the right to unlawfully download music. I guess even college presidents have a rock-n-roll rebel side.