The Tennessee senate has proposed a new bill that would aim to reduce copyright infringement on university campuses that receive state funding. The bill would require officials at universities to monitor all activity on their networks and to track down and stop infringing activity.

Under the proposed bill, universities would lose state funding if they refuse to implement network analysis systems if they receive ten or more infringement complaints from content owners during a single year, according to arstechnia.com.

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is fourth on the RIAA's list of top music piracy schools, as well as 19th on the MPAA's list of top movie pirating schools.

Students at the University have mixed feelings on the issue.
 
"I agree that illegal downloading is wrong," said Josh Jones, a junior engineering major.  "The artists made the music, people should have to pay to own it."

College students don't exactly have a ton of money. I think if the record companies were to make some sort of special deal with college students...this problem would start to correct itself.  UT Student Josh JonesHowever, he also said he can understand why students download so many songs illegally.

"We college students don't exactly have a ton of money," Josh said. " I think if the record companies were to make some sort of special deal with college students, like an iTunes package at a discounted price or something, this problem would start to correct itself."

The University already has a program that allows students to download music onto their computers for free with a valid UT email address. However, Ruckus, the music program, doesn't allow users to transfer songs to their MP3 players or burn them to a CD, the main reason that many students don't use the program.

"I mean really, what's the point?" said Kelly Mathews, a freshman advertising major.  "Yeah, it's nice to have music in my dorm room, but how often are people in their rooms? It's like a tease; I have it on my computer, but I can't take it with me. It's frustrating."

Universities are understandably irritated by the proposed bill as well. The software required for such monitoring is very expensive, and many feel that money could be better spent on bettering educational resources.  Lawmakers, however, don't seem to agree. 

While this bill most likely won't go into affect for some time, the potential impact is already being felt by everyone that would be effected by the bill.