HEA 101 Quick Guide: Peer-to-Peer File Sharing


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(HEA Title IV , Section 485(a)(1)(P) & Section 487(a)(29))

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What's New
On June 4, 2010, the Department of Education published guidance for complying with requirements related to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material.  Of particular note, this guidance includes a sample summary of civil and criminal penalties for copyright infringement that may be used by institutions to meet one of the disclosure requirements of the law.

Quick Take
The new law requires institutions to make disclosures to students about institutional policies and sanctions related to copyright infringement. In addition, an institution must certify it has developed plans to combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material (including the use of technology-based deterrents) and will, to the extent practicable, offer alternatives to illegal downloading.

When Will This Take Effect?

This provision went into effect when the bill was signed into law on August 14, 2008. (As noted by the Department, "because passage of the HEOA required program participants to implement a large number of new provisions before receiving guidance from the Deparment, during subsequent reviews of compliance with the HEOA, we will take into account whether any written guidance had been provided by the Department during the period under review.")

Final regulations, effective July 1, 2010, were published on October 29, 2009.  Additional guidance was published on June 4, 2010. 


Who On Campus May Need to Be Involved?

President; chief information officer; legal counsel



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From: The EDUCAUSE CIO Constituent Group Listserv On Behalf Of Steve Worona
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:42 PM
To: CIO@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: [CIO] EDUCAUSE Memo on P2P Provisions in the Higher Education Act

Dear Colleagues:

Congress recently passed H.R. 4137, the Higher Education Opportunity Act, a massive piece of legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act that the President will soon sign into law.

This legislation imposes an array of new federal regulatory and reporting requirements for colleges and universities. Two of these provisions are designed to reduce illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted works through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on campus networks. These and many other provisions of the Act go into effect when the President signs the bill. Institutions must take their obligations under the Act seriously and make a good faith effort to comply--as they would with any new federal law. But the law is unclear in certain respects, and ambiguities will need to be clarified through the regulatory process.

EDUCAUSE, along with ACE, AAU, and NASULGC, have prepared a memo summarizing what the law will require, what happens next, and what you should do now. The memo also includes the relevant portions of the Act, as well as the report language that accompanies and clarifies the law. That memo is posted at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/epo0815.pdf


As noted in the memo, the Department of Education will hold a series of regional meetings to hear comments on how the new law should be implemented in regulations. EDUCAUSE will track this process and will call on interested member institutions to play an appropriate role in these regional meetings.

All comments and questions are welcome.

Sincerely,
Mark Luker
Vice President, EDUCAUSE


Statutory Language