DAILY LOBO new mexico
You shall not pass! see page 15
January 19, 2012
thursday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Winning streak ends with loss at home by Cesar Davila
hendrix@unm.edu
Adria Malcolm / Daily Lobo Lobo junior forward Chad Adams and freshman guard Dominique Dunning watch the remaining minutes of the game against San Diego State Wednesday night at The Pit. The Lobos, now 1-1 in conference standings, fell to the Aztecs 75-70.
Internet giants unite against SOPA/PIPA by Luke Holmen and Chelsea Erven news@dailylobo.com
Many people found it difficult to access websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit on Wednesday after more than 500 websites “blacked out” in protest of SOPA and PIPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Internet Privacy Act (PIPA) are bills designed to prevent Internet piracy of copyrighted materials. The Senate votes on PIPA on Jan. 24. While the intention of the bills is to stop online piracy and copyright infringement by foreignbased websites, critics argue the bills will infringe on free speech. Current law permits the prosecution and shutdown of U.S.-based websites that feature pirated content, but the federal government has no jurisdiction over foreign sites. According to the text of the bills, SOPA, introduced in the House of Representatives, and PIPA, introduced in the Senate, would allow the Justice Department to block access to foreign websites that offer pirated content. Additionally, the bills would allow companies to take legal action against sites that host pirated content, and would require credit card companies to stop payments to websites hosting illegal content. While the bills share similar language, SOPA includes a clause which would make it illegal to stream unauthorized content. “Unauthorized content” could include covers of
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 81
popular music posted on sites such as Youtube, some crtitics say. For the bills to pass, the House Judiciary Committee must finish its review of SOPA, and both SOPA and PIPA must come to the floor for a vote. The final language of both bills must match. Opponents of the bills, including Wikipedia, said the legislation will limit the freedom of information by requiring internet providers to block websites hosting digital file sharing. But congressional staff memos from those supporting the legislation said the “black out” websites won’t even be affected by the bill. According to these memos, “Websites ‘going dark’ today in protest of the PROTECT IP Act will not be affected by enactment of the legislation. None of the following websites meet the definition of a site dedicated to infringing activities: Wikipedia; YouTube; Flickr; Twitter; Google; craigslist; eBay; The Huffington Post; Yahoo!.” The debate centers partly on concerns about the language of the legislation, which defines piracy and copyright infringement as, “activities constituting specified intellectual property offenses under the federal criminal code including criminal copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation and trafficking of sound recordings or videos of live musical performances, the recording of exhibited motion pictures, or trafficking in counterfeit labels, goods, or services.”
The UNM men’s basketball team’s 13-game winning streak came to a halt Wednesday night at The Pit. The Lobos fell to San Diego State 75-70 in front of a sold-out crowd. The Aztecs’ victory extended their winning streak to nine games. “Anytime in league race (when) you lose home games it makes it difficult,” head coach Steve Alford said. “Losing this one puts our back against the wall early in the conference race.” The Lobos (15-3, 1-1 MWC), have lost 11 of their last 14 meetings against the Aztecs (16-2, 2-0 MWC). The Aztecs have won 23 straight games against current MWC teams and their nine game streak is the fifthlongest in the nation. The Lobos started the game with a bang when senior forward Drew Gordon threw down an alley-oop pass from sophomore guard Kendall Williams, which ignited a 12-2 run. “We appeared to be on the verge of being blown out,” Aztecs’ head coach Steve Fisher said about the Lobos’ early start. It took four and a half minutes for the Aztecs to get on the board, and then only two minutes to catch up and take the lead. “In that run, they did a really good job to stay poised,” senior forward Phillip McDonald said. As the half went on, the Aztecs settled down and forced the Lobos into tough shots and nine turnovers, which allowed San Diego State to go into intermission down just one point, 31-30.
see Basketball PAGE 3
Reactions to SOPA and PIPA: “I think trying to combat internet piracy is a good thing, but I don’t think either of those bills is a good way to do it. There are too many possibilities in those bills for infringing on people’s civil rights. I don’t think passage of either of those bills is the best way to do it.” –Vanessa Baca, UNM Information Technologies Department spokeswoman “Imagine a world without free knowledge. For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” –Wikipedia.org “It is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill will not harm Wikipedia, domestic blogs or social networking sites. This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts. Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy.” -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas “People are acting like the government is going to censor everything and shut down Youtube and Wikipedia, and that simply isn’t the case. The bills are designed to crack down on people outside the U.S. that are illegally distributing copyright material. They are trying to put some measures in place to limit the amount of theft. They already do this with U.S. websites.” – Rodney Bogdanovich, UNM student “I don’t understand how these bills can even have support. The people in the government aren’t listening to America, and this is just the slippery path down the road of the government censoring things. There are other ways we can better confront piracy than limiting freedom of what people can look at on the Internet.” – Renee Garcia, UNM student “I think it’s going to stifle creativity and research. … It’s too broad and vaguely worded to really go after the foreign people who are doing the pirating. It’s just not going to work and there’s a lot of opportunity for domestic use.” – Jeff Bowles, UNM computer science senior applications support analyst “The (intellectual property) theft is in the range of $130 billion per year … and it’s a very serious issue. But some good issues have been raised. We have to listen to all of these folks about what they’re talking about. I think we can reach some common ground to protect innovation and internet security.” – Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, who signed onto the SOPA bill, told the Albuquerque Journal
Not on my Internet
Rolling for gold
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TODAY
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