The recording and movie industry is stepping up its battle against digital copyright piracy, encouraging higher education leaders to monitor their students and impose restrictions on violators.

Last week, the U.S. Naval Academy seized 100 computers from students who allegedly downloaded unauthorized music files from the Internet.

That move came on the heels of a controversial mass mailing last month to 2,300 university presidents nationwide, from the Recording Industry Association of America and other industry groups declaring ``copyright infringement is theft.'' The letter called on universities to take ``immediate, concrete action'' to address ``student piracy on your network.''

Industry executives say some of the most rampant abuses of their copyrighted material occurs on college campuses, where students have access to high-speed broadband systems that allow easy file-sharing over peer-to-peer networks.

In recent months, universities across the country have been reassessing their policies and issuing new rules, including limiting such file-sharing by students on university networks and warning students of disciplinary action if they violate copyrights.

Earlier this fall, the University of Southern California told students they could lose access to the university network for a year if they shared unauthorized files. A few universities have banned peer-to-peer file-sharing programs completely from their networks.

Most Bay Area institutions say they do not monitor student activity on the Internet and only warn students when a third-party, typically the recording industry, notifies the university of an alleged transgression. The student is then asked to remove the offending content and stop the file-sharing.

Stanford policy

To preserve bandwidth for academic purposes, Stanford gives lower priority to such file-sharing programs on its network, which can result in slow transfers. But the university has no outright ban. Stanford is considering sending a notice to students, faculty and employees reminding them that the university does not condone copyright infringement.

``We are not in the monitoring business. It's an education piece,'' said Ced Bennett, Stanford's director of Information Security Services. ``It will say it is possible prosecution would result,'' he added, though the copyright owner, not the university, he stressed, would take the legal action.

Officials at Cal State-Hayward are thinking of installing screen savers on school computers warning against copyright infringement.

The new push by the recording and music industry has reignited a battle that dates back to the emergence of Napster. Although Napster is gone, file-sharing program offered by KaZaA and LimeWire have risen to take its place.

Besides raising the issue of piracy, the recording industry also has urged universities to consider the drain such file-sharing has on their network bandwidth.

Filters better

RIAA President Cary Sherman said his organization is not encouraging universities to seize computers. Instead, he would rather have university networks install filters to screen out peer-to-peer programs that share unauthorized files.

``We think there is a technological solution,'' Sherman said. ``We aren't interested in intruding on student privacy.''

But university officials say they do not want to be turned into spies for the entertainment industry. And privacy and student advocates fear a chilling effect on use of peer-to-peer technology that can have valuable academic rewards.

Michael Morad, a microbiology student at San Jose State University, said universities should be wary about playing the policeman. Entertainment industry executives, he added, ``are trying to maximize their profit by intruding on our privacy and telling us what to do.''

Santa Clara University is working with student leaders on a new campaign to raise awareness of intellectual property and copyright infringement and ``how one greedy person can affect the academic experience and access of many others'' by hogging bandwidth, said Ron Danielson, Santa Clara's chief information officer.

``We're trying to make this a student-led initiative,'' Danielson said. ``We're a Jesuit university. We try to instill a sense of ethical responsibility so this fits right in with the things we talk about.''