NEWS
September 11, 2009
Students involved in TMI conference with blogging TMI (from p. 1)
intellectual property of the internet, and said he believes the difference needs to be accounted for in law. He said that people don’t know what is acceptable and what isn’t when it comes to downloading, and stressed that media companies and their lobbyists have taken advantage of that. Taking particular aim at trial by jury, Nesson like Scheuer, also touched upon the civic repercussions of the internet, though Nesson had a different angle, discussing the “Three Strikes” policy that internet service providers (ISPs) have adopted. Once an ISP has been notified three times that someone has been illegally downloading copyrighted material, usually by companies hired by the copyright holders, the user is kicked off the internet by the ISP without any sort of trial or jury verdict. The ability of the internet to aggregate good work was posed in retaliation to copyrighted material on the web. Nesson cited Wikipedia as “the most beautiful example” of this aggregate effort. However it also poses one of the biggest problems Nesson explained. He posed the question, “who owns the work once it escapes the confines of our own individual laptops?” On a similar note, the recent settlement of the Google Books suit made its way into the conversation, as the digital formats of books pose the same problem as the digital formats of music that got Napster into a bind in the late nineties. The Kindle thread was picked up by Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy and Law at Cornell University, whose session was entitled, “Technology is Neither Good nor Bad, Only Thinking Makes it So,” and was moderated by Prof. Andreas Teuber (PHIL), with Daniel Ortner ’10 as the student respondent. Mitrano, talking to the undergraduate portion of her audience claimed that, “copyright is the civil rights issue of your generation.” She noted that the Google Books settlement was a massive win for copyright holders and how US corporations shape technology, particularly when it comes to retrieving lost storage devices, like Kindles. “Amazon doesn’t want to have to find the lost Kindles,” she said. Instead, they profit off the purchase of a new one, and someone else gets their hands on a lost or stolen Kindle, allowing the company to continue to profit from the machine. She noted, “Intellectual property is not like physical property- it is more than thievery and piracy.” Mitrano also ventured into the realm of Facebook and the debate surrounding the advisability of broadcasting your life for all to see. “People are so disinhibited by the technology that they are
showing things about themselves that in the sober light of day is not a good idea,” she said. Ortner touched on one of the biggest problems with Facebook saying, “People should not lose their jobs because of information they posted on Facebook when they were 21 years old.” Mirano did not deny that Facebook and other social networking sites served some civic purpose, citing the “free exercise and right of speech.” “I don’t think for a minute that there is a perfect solution for these problems,” Mitrano said. Even so, she was willing to give the government the opportunity to act for the public good. The event, co-sponsored by Library and Technology Services, The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, and the Student Union, with special thanks to Gen Ed Now and STAND, is running through Friday in Rappaport Treasure Hall. The conference features the the traditional speaker component, with three sessions on Thursday and two on Friday, but also a student challenge. The challenge, which was open to the entire student body, invited students to come and cover the conference and provide a real time exploration of the issues at hand. There was supposed to be a digital media group and a traditional media group, but tellingly, no one volunteered to take on the traditional media component. The students, plugged in at a back table, are spending the conference twittering, streaming and blogging, and allowing participants to comment and tweet along with them using the the hashback (#) feature on twitter. Charles Radin, the Director of Global Operations and Communications and point person on the student challenge project summed up the scene, “They have reinvented the wire service!” Yale Spector ’11, member of the student challenge team explained, “It’s online 10 seconds after the guy says it.” Spector, along with his fellow team members James Fleishmann ’11, Rajiv Ramakrishnan ’10, Ori Applebaum ’11, and Samantha Shokin ’12, will present their work at a final session on Friday at 11 a.m., following Samuel J. Klein, Director of Content at One Laptop per Child, who will discuss, “Does Digital Deepen the Divide?” The session will be moderated by Theodore Johnson, Assistant Professor of Coexistence and Conflict at the Slifka Program at Brandeis and the student respondent will be Danielle Myers ’12 of STAND.
Editor’s Note: Ariel Wittenberg, Daniel Ortner, and Samantha Shokin are members of The Hoot staff.
The Hoot 3
Brandeis Briefs ... SEPTEMBER 11 COMMEMORATIONS. The Brandeis Interfaith Chaplaincy will hold a peace vigil in honor of the eighth anniversary of September 11 today from 12 to 12:30 p.m. in the peace circle. The vigil will be the first of weekly Friday vigils for peace in the Middle East, and seeks to provide an opportunity for members of the community to reflect on the current situations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. The vigils are hosted by Father Walter Cuenin, Chaplain Alex Kern, Imam Talal Eid and Rabbi Elyse Winick, along with the Student Union, Democracy for America and Students for a Democratic Society. HIATT RECRUITING ORIENTATION. The Hiatt Career Center is hosting a “recruiting orientation” on Monday from 12 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help prepare students for the job search process. The orientation will include tips for students to learn about job postings, upcoming employer visits and oncampus interview schedules. DIES BIKES TO KICK OFF ANOTHER YEAR. Deis Bikes will be up and running Tuesday. The program received $2000 for to revamp the program, fix up the bikes, and ensuring safety.
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