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Colleges required to stop illegal downloading?

Congress is considering legislation that would require colleges receiving federal aid to educate students and faculty about illegal file-sharing on campus and develop a plan to offer "technology-based deterrents" to illegal downloading.

The provisions are part of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007, introduced in the House by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Texas, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness.

The legislation would require colleges and universities participating in any Title IV program to inform students and employees on certain "policies and procedures related to the illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted materials," and to "develop a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity."

The legislation makes available competitive grants to support "Campus Based Digital Theft Prevention Solutions." SafeMedia CEO & Chairman Safwat Fahmy applauded Miller and Hinojosa for sponsoring the legislation.

"This vision, intent and wording of the bill shows that Congress understands the complex issues of illegal file sharing and identity theft associated with contaminated P2P networks on U.S. campuses," said Fahmy. "The proposed measure also recognizes that technology is available today to stop contaminated P2P, while allowing the legitimate ones, which are critical educational tools to operate without interruption."

"SafeMedia products available now stop contaminated P2P networks and offer immediate alternative to illegal downloading. SafeMedia unique lock and key system creates a safe and secure environment to distribute copyrighted material can be used by Universities as an alternative to illegal downloading, ." said Fahmy.

"SafeMedia has the only products available today that can end all illegal file sharing and identity theft associated with encrypted or non-encrypted contaminated P2P," he said.

Contaminated P2P networks are known to contain illegal copyrighted files, classified business information, national security data and personal identification documents. SafeMedia's P2P Disaggregator technology (P2PD™) was developed to create a secure environment for unencumbered, economical use of legitimate P2P and Bit Torrent networks on campus.

The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities – a non-profit organization that promotes use of information technology in higher education – wrote to Miller's committee expressing concerns that no technology exists that can stop illegal file-sharing, an assertion that Fahmy strongly disputes.

"SafeMedia's P2PD is available today and was designed specifically to address the complex issues of P2P networks on college campuses," he said. "We challenge any college in America to test our solution and see if it doesn't solve the problem of eliminating illegal file sharing, creating a safe environment for the legitimate use of P2P and Bit Torrent networks and provide a safe, secure and economical digital download solution."

Dan Glickman, chairman & CEO of the Motion Pictures Alliance of America, said intellectual property theft costs more than 140,000 U.S. jobs each year. Glickman said almost half the U.S. motion picture industry's domestic losses are attributed to illegal file-sharing over campus P2P networks.

"We are pleased to see that Congress is taking this step to help keep our economy strong by protecting copyrighted material on college campuses," said Glickman.

About SafeMedia Corporation

SafeMedia Corporation, based in Boca Raton, Fl, is a global developer of P2P Disaggregator technology (P2PD™) that stops illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. SafeMedia's technologies provide individual users, businesses, educational institutions, and public/private organizations with an immediate, effective way to totally safeguard their network infrastructure from every risks associated with illegal file sharing of copyrighted files, ensures 24/7/365 compliance with all federal and state digital copyright laws and eliminates the risk of legal prosecution. By preventing upload participation, these networks become incapable of growing and lose their reason to exist. The P2PD™ technology is deployed at end-user sites, either integrated into network devices installed in user locations such as edge routers/modems or subnet edge routers and concentrators, or as an independent network technology (Clouseau®).

You can view the full published report at The Register: bittorrent_encryption_explosion, or whitepapers and studies on P2P or SafeMedia technology. For more about SafeMedia visit: www.SafeMedia.com.

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