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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2004
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ONE HUNDREDTH YEAR, ISSUE 68
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
Student challenges MPAA warning Chancellor hires chief of staff Kelly Rohrs THE CHRONICLE
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When freshman Elliott Wolf opened his e-mail last week and found a forwarded note from the Motion Picture Association of America, he didn’t think much of it. Sure, he had downloaded some television shows, but he didn’t mind that the Office ofInformation Technology was telling him the industry wanted him to stop. He did. But when he opened his e-mail this week to find another note from the MPAA, he wasn’t sure what to think. The warning, which applied to TV shows from weeks earlier, was the same as the first, but this time Wolf was armed with a slew ofresearch. He was willing to quit sharing his files over the Internet because, as he said, “it’s just not worth it.” But the prospect of a legal fight with the MPAA intrigued him. ‘What the MPAA is yelling at me about, at Duke about, is really ambiguous,” Wolf said. Because the MPAA warning is about television shows, which are initially broadcast free of charge, Wolf thinks the industry is on questionable legal ground. He has contacted independent activist groups to help him figure out if the same court rulings that made VCRs legal in the 1980s protect downloading. Ren Bucholz, activism coordinator for the advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the copyright law that governs file sharing cases has not caught up with technology. Whether file sharing
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Pamela Sutton-Wallace, a Duke University Health System employee since 1997, was appointed chiefof staff to the chancellor for health affairs, officials announced Monday. She has held the position since October. Sutton-Wallace’s promotion marks the fourth major
FreshmanElliot Wolf is challenging the MPAA's contention that downloading television shows is illegal. is legal at both individual and large-scale levels depends on interpretation of “fair use” exceptions in copyright laws. “As far as personal file sharing and copying a television show, there isn’t something in the law that gets you off the hook right away,” Bucholz said. “The argument is that they may have been broadcast for free in the first place, but
Federal legislation to reduce Pell Grant aid by
Tiffany Webber THE CHRONICLE
A bill that passed Congress last week may cut government funding of Pell Grants, the primary source offederal grant aid for undergraduate students, by more than $3OO million. Although Duke students will likely be unaffected by the measure, should President George W. Bush sign it into law, more than 1 million students nationally could be affected by the Republican-backed initiative, and Democrats are fuming. Activists estimate that the changes would effectively lower individual aid by $2OO to $3OO for approximately 1 million students, and an estimated 90,000 others would lose their Pell Grants entirely. “In 1999-2000, costs were preventing even college-qualified students from attending school,” said Brian Fitzgerald, director of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent group that advises Congress on student fi-
Steve Veres
THE CHRONICLE
nancial aid legislation. ‘There’s no question that it’s simply getting harder to afford college —the barriers have increased because tuition costs have increased.” The bill will not affect those students whose family income falls below $25,000 but will most drastically affect the university and college students from “moderate income” households—those earning between $30,000 and $45,000, Fitzgerald said. “It won’t affect most [well endowed private institutions],” he added, “because there is zero expected contribution for those earning less than $40,000.” Fitzgerald also explained that for students who would lose Pell Grant funding under the new legislation at most wellfunded private universities, like Duke and Harvard University, the schools would most likely be able to support their students’ changing needs. “State schools and smaller private institutions, however, may SEE
PELL GRANTS ON PAGE 6
they may not remain free.” In the absence of a clear legal course, the industry often sends “cease and desist” requests to people they find
trafficking files.
OFT receives about 300 to 400 warnings from the recording and movie industries SEE MPAA ON PAGE
appointment Dr. Victor Dzau has made since he took charge of DUHS July 1; all four administrators have been women. The hiring trend indicates a shift in focus for the Health System, which for years was regarded as an exclusive club of white men within the organization. Dzau said he was conscious of the change and had made an effort to diversify his senior administration. “Its not only the quality of people, but the message you’re giving people in what you are looking for,” Dzau told The Chronicle earlier this month. Previous appointees are: Molly O’Neill
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