A &E
Haunted America Page 15
Juno Reviewed Page 18
u
January 29, 2008
Visit http://anchorweb.org for articles and archives
22
Lifestyles
Vol. 80 Issue #16
AnchoR
The The
Free Access to Ideas... Full Freedom of Expression
RIC Students Get Ripped For Ripping Music By Kameron Spaulding Anchor Editor Twenty-two Rhode Island College students have been sent pre-litigation settlement letters from the Record Industry Association of America. The letters were sent on the behalf of the major record companies to 407 students and/or faculty at 18 universities nationwide as part of an ongoing campaign against online music theft. Jonathan Lamy, Senior Vice President of Communication at the RIAA, said that “college students are among music’s most tech-savvy fans. The latest legal alternatives now come bundled with fan favorites such as social networking features, music videos, and movies. The many alluring legal options currently available are free or deeply discounted and going legal means that students avoid getting in trouble with their university and the law.” “Bringing lawsuits has never been our first choice,” Lamy added. “But for those who continually ignore enticing legal alternatives and plentiful warnings, it’s a necessary part of the equation.” When the Anchor contacted the Public Relations office at RIC, it was the first that anyone in the office had heard of the matter. College spokesperson Jane Fusco then contacted the college legal team only to learn that they had not been alerted to the matter either. At this time, the college has not released a statement on how they will react to the RIAA. In past cases, a major issue has become of how the college reacts. First at hand will be the question of if the college will turn over the names of the students using the computers mentioned in the letters. The RIAA does not know the identity of the downloaders, only the accounts they used. Some schools like Harvard, Boston University and Maine have been very strong defenders of
their students while others have not. It is also important to note that since no investigation is made to ascertain that the defendant is actually someone who engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted music without authorization, there are many defendants who have no idea why they are being sued. In past cases, defendants have included people who have never even used a computer. In one famous case, the RIAA sued a dead grandmother. Also many people who say they have used a computer have never engaged in any peer to peer file sharing. The Anchor has yet to learn the identity of any of those named in the suits at RIC. We were, however, able to learn some details about students at Massachsetts Institute of Technology also being sued. One MIT student who has received a letter from the RIAA said that he plans not to settle and that he would fight all of the RIAA’s attempts to learn his identity. To date,
To Fund or Not to Fund? By Kameron Spaulding Anchor Editor The December 12 Student Community Government meeting was highlighted by yet another lively discussion, this time on funding for the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Yet, that was not the only important decision made in the last meeting of the fall semester. The meeting opened with a presentation by Sarah Courtemanche, the outgoing student representative to the Board of Governors of Higher Education. She was able to provide detailed information on the inner workings of the Board, the entity which governs RIC, URI, and CCRI. Courtemanche was followed by the SCG officer’s announcements. President Nicholas Lima reported on his Student Parliament “Two-Part Plan” that was begun at the start of last semester. Phase I was to gather information and fill remaining student seats on Parliament and Council committees. The second phase has now begun. Now, SCG will be using the information they collected to implement their new goals for this semester. Vice President Christopher Giroux then announced that a Town Hall meeting will be held on Feb. 27 at 7:15 p.m. in the Faculty Center, next to Donovan. This forum will be an opportunity for students to get information and share their thoughts with a panel of SCG officers and College administrators. Later in the meeting, Ericka Atwell, deputy speaker and chair of the Conditions and Services Committee gave her report on the condition of many areas of the campus. The run-down states of CraigLee Hall and Adams Library were highlighted. She also added that Physical Plant has been advised of SCG’s concerns, and she announced that they will be
working on as many issues as the ever-tightening budget allows. The Diversity Resolution was the next major topic on the agenda. It was passed with unanimous support from Parliament. The resolution stated that there should be an increase in RIC’s support for multicultural affairs and staffing on campus. “The resolution was long overdue,” said Lima. He added that Parliament would here RIC President John Nazarian’s response when he addresses the body, scheduled for the next meeting on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. This unanimous action of Parliament was shortlived. Next up was the contentious issue of funding the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). Sunny Intwala, chapter president, and other NSCS officers presented a case to Parliament in an attempt to attain funding for the honor society. Intwala stated that the policy that kept them from receiving funding was outdated, and should be changed. Many representatives on Parliament disagreed, including Parliament member Jennifer Almeida, president of Sigma Iota Theta, a sorority that also gets no funding from SCG. She argued that exclusive groups shouldn’t receive funding, and added that it has not kept her organization from holding several successful events. After more than an hour of debate, all but a few Parliament members voted to continue to deny funding to honor societies such as NSCS, and leave the policies as they are. According to SCG officers, there were many important decisions made at this longer than usual meeting. Parliament member Joe Roberge may have summed it up best, when he said, “It was a very long meeting… but we got some important issues resolved.”
no MIT students have gone to court to settle. On top of letters to RIC and MIT, the RIAA sent letters in the following quantities to eighteen schools this week including: Arizona State University (33), Bowdoin College (11), California State University, Monterey Bay (25), College of William and Mary (15), Duke University (16), Mount Holyoke College (15), Saint Mary’s College of Minnesota (13), Stanford University (15), Texas Christian University (14), University of California, Berkeley (26), University of California, Los Angeles (26), University of Connecticut (25), University of Iowa (24), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (22), University of Texas at Austin (50), and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (36). Any RIC student who wishes to settle will most likely pay $3,000 to $5,000. For any RIC student wishing to fight their lawsuit there are many options. Robert Mitson, an attorney at Mitson Law Associates was unable to return our calls by print, yet he has fought cases with the RIAA in the past. Many of these college cases have been challenged. The first challenge of which we are aware that has been made by a college or university itself, rather than by the affected students, is Arista v. Does 1-17, where the Oregon Attorney General has filed a motion to quash the RIAA’s subpoena directed to the University of Oregon, seeking student identities. The motion argues that the RIAA’s identification evidence is flawed, so that the University could not respond to the subpoena without either violating privacy laws by divulging private information about students who are not shown to have committed any copyright infringement, or by conducting an elaborate investigation on the RIAA’s behalf. This developing story will be followed in future editions of the Anchor.
Do these emergency phones work? Story on Page 4...
Photo Caption: THE BLUE LIGHT IS ON, BUT NOBODY’S HOME A faulty Residence Hall “Lot L” Blue Light phone, above, is marked as not working by a piece of caution tape tied to it. Anchor photo by Mike Shiel