+ 10 - 7 | § ¶Stanford rolls over to the RIAA
Very disappointing (warning, PDF):
While file-sharing technology has revolutionized our ability to share information
with one other, its illegal use for pirating copyrighted materials is at unacceptable levels
at Stanford. On March 30, 2007 Stanford was listed as one of the Motion Picture
Association of America’s top 25 worst offenders
(http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=1969). We have also had a steep
increase in the number of piracy complaints filed against us by the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA).
From September 2006 – January 2007, Stanford received nearly as many Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints as we received in the entire 2005-06
academic year. Of these complaints, 90% are directed at undergraduate and graduate
students: students who are jeopardizing the Stanford network by using it as platform to
steal songs, movies, TV shows, video games, books and software.
As of May 2007, the RIAA has identified seven Stanford network connections
that have been targeted for its “pre-litigation” notification program
(http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/022807.asp). The RIAA has said that it will
continue to send out pre-litigation notices each month.
Keeping up with the number of file-sharing complaints coming in under the
DMCA has required almost three full-time Stanford employees. It is an irresponsible
waste of Stanford’s resources—your tuition dollars—to spend so much staff time
responding to copyright violations.
Yes, of course Stanford is concerned about the cost of tuition, when it can be used to justify some ulterior motive. The announcement goes on to say that students will be fined $100 for their first offense, $500 for their second, and $1000 for their third.
This should be self-evident, but an institution the size of Stanford has the power to actually resist the hypocrisy of the RIAA, especially if it banded together with other universities (
as a Harvard Law professor urged). But instead, it caves and passes along the injustice to the students, complete with the false use of rhetoric of "stealing." Meanwhile, Stanford continues to cater to its own trust fund (which
continues to grow).
Let this stand as yet another reason why never to donate to the main trust fund of any university - if you're in the position to donate and have the inclination, give to specific programs instead that you know can benefit and will use the money properly.
+ 6 - 9 | § ¶Spitzer being bad again
This stuff is really disappointing, I honestly pictured Spitzer as a good presidential candidate in 8 or 12 years.
Governor Spitzer has proposed to expand NY State's DNA database by collecting samples from every convicted criminal, including those guilty of misdemeanors, like harassment or unauthorized use of a credit card. Spitzer also wants to streamline DNA collection in order for defendants to use it to clear their names.
The "we'll make it easier for defendants to use it to clear their name" bit is supposed to make this Orwellian pill easier to swallow, but it doesn't change the fact that this is a powerful organization building a massive database with huge potential for abuse. This sort of proposal failed back when Pataki was governor (the Democratic-led legislature shut it down), but now that both the governor and legislature are Democratic it seems more likely that it will pass. Let this stand as yet another example of why divided government is ideal - the two parties spend all their time fighting each other and leave the rest of us alone. It worked in the 90s, and what's more it gave late-night comedians plenty of material.
