For the presidents of 19 colleges, this month’s mail has already produced at least one unpleasant surprise: a letter, signed by five influential lawmakers, warning of a “troubling” epidemic of online music and movie piracy on the campuses.
Leaders of two committees in the U.S. House of Representatives sent the letters to the top 10 colleges on each of two lists released recently by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. The lists, which overlap slightly, named the colleges that the trade groups said had received the most notices of copyright infringement over the past academic year.