The Campus Computing Project: Costs of P2P Compliance

As part of the reauthorization of the massive Higher Education Act (HEA), which President Bush signed into law in August, colleges and universities in the United States face new regulatory requirements that are designed to crack down on illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on campus networks.

Under the new law, postsecondary schools are supposed to inform students on an annual basis that digital piracy may subject them to criminal and civil penalties. Schools are also required to develop plans to "effectively combat" unauthorized file sharing, and to provide students with alternatives to illegal downloading "to the extent practicable."

The Campus Computing Project, which studies the role of IT in higher education, launched a survey earlier this year to try and determine how much money and staff time schools were spending to comply with HEA's provisions. The report, titled "The Campus Costs of P2P Compliance," contains data from 321 two- and four-year colleges and universities across the U.S.

Some of the survey's findings include:

  • Only 18.4 percent of responding schools reported that they have a licensing agreement with a music service that students can use as an alternative to illegal P2P file sharing (e.g. Ruckus Networks or Napster).
  • 83.3 percent of public bachelor's colleges and 58.2 percent of private bachelor's colleges said they have licensed software products to prevent students from engaging in illegal P2P activity on campus networks, and private universities spend an average of over $100,000 a year on that software.
  • Schools' IT departments were responsible for the lion's share of compliance costs on campus, both in terms of budget dollars and personnel time.
  • Community colleges have spent far less time and money on P2P compliance than four-year universities, even though they serve almost half of all students.

You can download a PDF of the report here. Published October 2008.

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