Dear Representative Christopher Van Hollen, Jr,

I am writing about the bill HR4137. In one section of the bill, it suggests that federal funds for financial aid should be contingent on issues of "digital theft," pulling federal financial aid for all students if the university did not agree to test technology-based deterrents. As a college student, this bill makes me very upset.

I think this is incredibly unfair to all students who are in university or may one day hope to attend a university. On a most basic level, holding hostage financial funding for low- and middle-income families in order to help corporations preserve their bottom line is unethical and unfair. I don't deny that file sharing does lose money for the complaining companies, but to blindly punish certain students, even if they do not own a computer, and certain universities which rely more on federal funding than others, is not the right solution.

Then there is the question of what will satisfy the deterrent qualification. Some universities offered an opt-in music subscription service as an alternative to file-sharing, with moderate success. Articles criticizing this bill suggested forcing people to subscribe. Is this fair again to lower and middle income students? To increase their tuition even small amounts in order to pay off the MIAA and RIAA, when even that subscription fee could make it impossible for them to continue at the university or to pay the rent or eat. As a college student, I find this very upsetting. I have friends who can barely make ends meet month to month. They live off campus and take the bus to class in order to save money, and can end up living off of the good will of friends and low cost foods like ramen noodles by the end of the month.

Another solution is to cut out all possible peer-to-peer networks, for example all torrent files. This is also not a very good solution. There are legitimate reasons to use these files - from simply an easy way to give a big file to a classmate for a project, to downloading large files like linux distributions, which are free to use and share but are too large to share easily in other ways. If we start limiting types of files or certain sites, we limit the free speech and ability to learn. There are also cases where files are being used for fair use in courses, which would be restricted. I can't think of a place where having completely open access to the internet and information could be more important.

I don't download music illegally, I prefer systems like iTunes. I also don't need federal financial aid, because I am fortunate enough to have been born to a family that can afford college and is willing to support me through my education. Neither of these facts make this bill less troubling to me. I know it would fundamentally change the quality of my education, through the access to information I have, the respect and trust for the university I hold, and the people I get to know.

Thank you for taking the time to read this note.

Sincerely
--Amy Goodwin