Congress has begun putting pressure on colleges and universities in the US over piracy concerns. Lawmakers sent "surveys" to the presidents of 19 universities in hopes of getting answers as to what the universities are doing to curb piracy on campus. But the surveys weren't just to find out what's being done, as House Judiciary Committee member Lamar Smith (R-TX) made a veiled threat to universities that do not provide satisfactory answers back to Congress. "If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act," Smith said in a statement.

"The fact that copyright piracy is not unique to college and university campuses is not an excuse for higher education officials to fail to take responsible steps to eliminate such activity nor to appropriately sanction such conduct when discovered," the letter reads. The universities that received the letter and survey were:

Boston University

Columbia University

Duke University

Howard University

Michigan State University

North Carolina State University

Ohio University

Purdue University

Rochester Institute of Technology

University of California at Los Angeles

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

University of Massachusetts at Boston

University of Michigan

University of Pennsylvania

University of Nebraska at Lincoln

University of South Carolina

University of Tennessee

University of Wisconsin at Madison

Vanderbilt University

According to a copy of the letter as seen by Ars Technica, the universities in question were pulled from a pair of lists released by the RIAA and MPAA this year naming the top piracy schools in the nation. The survey questions the schools on a wide range of topics, from a description of the procedure followed when receiving an infringement notice to a detailed list—starting in 2002—of the number of students that have been involved with piracy.

Some questions were more leading, asking whether the institution offers discounts or site licensing for "legitimate online services," whether the universities provide subsidized cable or satellite TV programming to students, and whether the universities agree with a statement made by a Purdue spokesperson in February, saying that the RIAA was "asking us to pursue an investigation and as the service provider, we don't see that as our role."

"We want to know exactly what they plan to do to stop illegal downloading on their campuses," Smith continued in a statement. "Universities have a moral and legal obligation to ensure students do not use campus computers for illegal downloading. These schools do not give away their intellectual property for free, and they should not expect musicians to do so."

The Committee gives the universities until May 31 to provide detailed answers to the questions, and claims that the answers will assist Congress in determining what legislation might need to be enacted to ensure that piracy is "no longer commonly associated with student life on some US campuses." However, whether the universities will actually respond is another matter. While some universities have been quick to comply with requests from the RIAA and MPAA thus far, others have not. Answering the thorny survey questions will force some universities to go on written record about their enforcement practices, which Congress will likely use against them in the future if those answers are deemed to be unacceptable.