Back in November, we brought you news of a bill in Congress that would enlist America’s higher educational institutions as an enforcement arm of anti-Piracy groups like the MPAA and the RIAA:

In the House Education and Labor Committee’s comprehensive College Opportunity and Affordability Act, there is a small section dictating that any university in receipt of federal funding shall act as an enforcement agents for the stoppage of unlawful downloading. The committee unanimously approved the bill today.

According to Ars Technica yesterday, the Senate has passed the same bill with the peer to peer provisions intact. The gist of the provisions are that all American universities that wish to continue receiving public funds must “begin authoring formal piracy deterrence plans.”

Of course the MPAA loves this, and has already drafted and is readying for release self-described “campus briefing books” that will detail the anti-piracy provisions and what colleges must do to comply with the new regulations. Also included? Helpful hints on how to stop P2P traffic and detect copyright infringement.

This, of course, is an abortion of the process and is what looks like is a successful attempt to transform American educational institutions into law enforcement branches. At this point, though, there is little that stands in the way of this becoming law, since this “harmonizes” the House and Senate versions of the bill, and the executive branch has done very little to stand up for digital rights thus far.