Arrr, Matey

Drudgelink to article on colleges getting heavy on Internet piracy...

The gist of the piece is that federal agencies will withhold funding to schools that don't do enough to stop piracy. It sort of sounds like media companies are using the government like some kind of union thug.

Anyway, my only reason for addressing this here was for the following quote:

"If the university is going to prohibit underage drinking, I think it ought to prohibit anything on the Internet that's illegal, too," said Alicia Richardson, an Illinois State University junior who applauds her school's restrictive policies on file-sharing. "I'm not going to mess with it. I know the consequences."

Right, so if schools enforce copyright policies which directly harm absolutely no one half as well as they enforce the policies designed to keep women from sexual assault and everyone from alcohol-related death, I don't think the pirates will have anything to fear.

It also makes me feel bad for Alicia Richardson, who must be the loneliest, saddest student at Illinois State. I can imagine her now on Friday night, sitting home alone in her apartment while all of her friends sneak off to booze it up at secret parties to which she hasn't been invited.

The irony, of course, will be that schools enforce anti-piracy policies more ruthlessly than alcohol policies. After all, think of what's at stake.