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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2000)
( Tuesday,Aptij OPINION lay, April 4, 2(X)() THE BATTALION Page 13 remoi In highly educated profes and march likeacommoiil rtcr John Bradley said.I id it's not the flag.” i for the Advancement of j sm boycott of the state,! statehouse in Columbiais| \ it is a symbol ofSoulhcl to war dead. al colors of the Confederate flag atoptrcSj ever\ OIK' S ve Thursday In Columbia, wtaM fur I for the same day Heie lipectations and linues to grow erate Naval Jack -i, Thoro ” icderatc Hag is a symbol-c-i» ' L L • both pud" and outrage-o‘"pod sites and Adopted as a battle flagdunrg*” h j : f War by the Army otTennessee • lel ‘* ,c u ‘ ,u . horn the prow of Conledetaii M teaching kids for states that were admitted taB , . lenca ■ to read and fiPSTEIfe^Tu* | he Internet has sur passed al- MELISSA BEDSOLE IX Universities’ tes teaching kids bdn of to build bombs {JSeful MP3 when sites get program m Iteiftiut down, there GeorgeBargumenis of ■sorship on all infringes on the rights of student users ; have been cries of censorship cross is remmiS' cent of the Confederate ' battle flag. Alabama 5 Adopted in Transfer 1895. this flag is manylreL d«f>i' ted as die: ivils. Recently, both a square of Die'" and a rectangle. tosecesH its st Andrews adopts:allowing an unnecessary ban on a iusic Website by almost 200 colleges and! |ross the nation. *apster.com is the Website of a pro- m created by a 19-year-old college pout that has put MP3 songs at the ertips of almost everyone. The prob- is that while many schools were maiked an all ■ jjlibleshooting they did not consider 1 .:> deaths per he sendee being provided to their stu- 1 miles driven — they simply banned the use of t ) a year earlier a tapster. Napster benefits music lovers Dnsecutive year o ^ a |i ow i n g users to download their fa- announced. twite songs, s continued harsh decision by many col- : ' 1 ^ leges to deny access to Napster is a " ! :1 ' ' sa ^' 1 ' :: gre;ii disservice to their students, but show that oui i t h e rea | ne gi ec t j s that these schools did I laying huge dtv - ^ originally attempt to find altema- ■'Omparison, the ; tives to solve the congestion problems ate was ' i Pei caused by Napster, iles in 19 6. Bso, what is Napster? MP3s(comput- 1 1 " eriiles that most college students dis- nb ! r ^^ ^^S Kered their first week at school, ifnot , W 1,C Jnno t0 " fooner) are compressed music files that m . ncc - anvone can download. Their popularity nary estimates frv notoriousam coll sludents ' Highway Traffic!.^ wouldrathergrabanMp3 forfree than pay for the CD. Napster allows rs to trade the MP3s tliey have on JL l stones, 'book... off Building. Sir personal computers. The problem Napster is tliat transferring songs ices quite a lot of data on the campus works when users are logged on to I Napster server — obviously con- sling the network for all users. Banning the use of the Napster pro- bm is nearing infringement on the ghts of the students. Recently, students Indiana University (IU) founded an anizafion called Students Against liversity Censorship (SUAC) after IU nned the use of Napster. The organization believes that “higher education in America should be free of censorship and complete ad ministrative control.” What the stu dents are really fighting is that their university did not work, to find alterna tive solutions. The SUAC further stat ed on their Website that they aimed “to show that blocking media sources is not the answer, education is.” Recently, Napster worked with III to develop a method to reduce con gestion of the college’s campus networks. Indiana University then temporarily lifted their ban for a two week trial period. Still, IU is just one school — there are many other schools that have made the hasty deci sion to take away the Napster services all together. Obviously Websites need to be ac cessible w ithout the heavy network traffic that Napster produces, but the solution is not to end services all to gether. If configuring network traffic control could not be worked out, the In ternet would have never surv ived. There is always a solution, and with technology at its peak the answer can not be too far away. There are more than eight schools (including IU and Yale) that have lifted the full-time Napster ban. Yale has de cided to let users log on at certain “off- peak” hours to see if the congestion can be controlled. It is great to see other universities looking into solutions w ithout having to completely ban the use of Napster. Another problem with the ban of Nap ster is the example being set by the uni versity officials deciding to ban all us age of the software. The Napster program hit a bump and instead of trying to problem-solve, the way that students are expected to, these university officials gave up on the program and took its services away from students. Are these univers following the phrase: If at first you don’t succeed, then quit? Each school needs to look for an al ternative solution. Bandwidth allocation and other answers can be found. The alternatives are oufffiW? soon as these universities open their ears and eyes, hopefully they will hear the calls of censorship die down and see that their students can enjoy the services of Napster once again. Melissa Bedsole is a sophomore general studies major. ERIC ANDRAOS/The Battalion I n his weekly technology col umn for the Houston Chronicle, Dwight Silverman gave rave reviews for the MP3 pro gram Napster. Sil verman said Nap ster represents “in its most primi- Problematic tive state, the application very future of deserves music distribu- pan by all tion.” However, colleges, while Napster rebuke from may be the first at-risk step in a new di- students rection for online music, like any other first step, it is shaky, faulty and will trip its users. De spite its roaring popularity and stoic support from self-righteous college stu dents everywhere, Napster represents the inborn danger of combining greedy, careless students with poorly written, bug-ridden software. As a result, Nap ster is a problem for both universities and their MP3-eager students. Like giant cockroaches, Napster thrives in dorm rooms where college students, the demographic most likely to spend their money on music and least likely to want to actually spend their money on music, have access to high speed Internet connections. However, transferring MP3s puts a huge strain on the user’s network, especially when the user is sending and receiving many files at the same time. University computer networks have felt the burn of Napster as hundreds of their students use Napster frivolously and take up a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. Northwestern University, for example, found that up to 30 per cent of its network’s bandwidth was go ing solely to Napster users. In re sponse, almost 200 universities, including Northwestern, have cut off students’ access to Napster servers. For the sake of saving their band width, a total ban of Napster from cam pus networks should be and needs to be done. Contrary to the collective whine from students everywhere who cannot without ripping off music compa- ’nies, the Napster ban is about regulating network traffic for all users — something the schools have the right to do. The Napster program was written by 19-year-old Shawn Fanning, a college drop-out and amateur programmer. While the software innovates in the way it lets users connect directly to other users’ computers to grab MP3s, Fanning could not have expected its popularity and never took into account the amount of bandwidth the application sucks up. Napster, like its users, greedily uses up as much bandwidth as it can in the pur suit of the latest download. Most universities have rules about the use of their bandwidth and state that it is to be used strictly for educational pur suits, research and public service uses. Using a college’s high-speed Internet connection to find and save MP3s is a privilege, and privileges can be revoked. Besides the Napster ban protecting universities’ digital resources, it also protects the security of Napster users. Most users know that the application helps them find the latest online music, but what most people do not understand is that convenience comes with a price in terms of security. Napster has avoided blatant copyright infringement by not actually housing any illegal MP3s on its own servers. No, that criminal oflense is reserved for the users themselves. Napster users downloading a MP3 are simply tapping into another per son’s harddrive which is hosting the file. This technique, while it helps absolve Napster from guilt, presents two distinct problems for the average Napster user. First, giving an anonymous user ac cess to your harddrive opens a Pandora’s box of Internet security' hazards. Besides having some guy in Iowa finding out how many Billy Joel MP3s you have, a harddrive-to-harddrive connection in vites a hacker to sneak around your per sonal computer files. Second, having illegal MP3s is one thing; making them available to the masses is another. The Recording Indus try Artists of America have said that they are not targeting individual MP3 users, but rather those who serve the files for the entire Internet to grab. And guess what, if you use Napster, this means you. Napster may be an easy new way to find the newest songs online, hut it is causing serious trouble for students and their colleges. Schools have every right to manage their network’s bandwidth for the purpose of education and re search. Students likewise are benefiting from the universities’ ban by being pro tected from potential hackers and crimi nal litigation. With Napster, students may be searching for the latest radio friendly pop song, but they are finding a plethora of problems for both them selves and their universities. Eric Dickens is a junior English major. Publicizing sex offenders’ criminal records protects community r he state of New Jer sey wants to pub lish a rogue’s llery of sex offenders Os) on the Internet. It puld not be the first state do so. Many other lies, including Texas, rrently list convicted wial oftenders on the |eb. There are plans to augment the Texas list- Ig with pictures. For once, the government is n the right track. The American Civil Liberties Union might agree because these laws deny the offenders question their privacy and ability to move to ices where their past misdeeds will not haunt m. However, publishing the names, address- places of work and most importantly, pho- graphs of convicted SOs is probably one of le smartest undertakings in the history of law enforcement. The law forbids harassment of SOs, which means they can live in peace, as long as they behave, while the community is protected from the SOs. Making the public aware of the presence of an SO is the first step toward protecting the community. Not all SOs are pedophiles. Not all are dirty old men hiding behind bushes. Not all are incorrigible. Many of them, however, are re peat offenders. Allowing them anonymity pro vides them with further opportunities to repeat their antisocial behavior. Stripping away that anonymity makes it more difficult for them to get within striking dis tance of potential victims. It seems logical that SOs, by their violation of others’ privacy, should forfeit their own. Considering the dastardly na ture of their crimes against society, this might be a mild punishment. Furthermore, the point of stripping them of their privacy is not punish ment, but self-preservation on the part of society. The importance of having the infor mation available on the Internet should not be underestimated. The popula tion of the U.S. is immense, and the society itself is in a constant state of flux. New people arrive in town daily, and every day, people move on to the next place. People have become comfortable with the idea of living among relative strangers. This comfort can lead to tragic consequences. One family in New Jersey lost their 7-year-old daughter when she was raped and mur dered by a recently-arrived neighbor who was a known sex offender. This tragedy resulted in Megan’s Law, re quiring that SOs register their addresses with local police and that neigh- ruben deluna/the hors and local school and day-care personnel be apprised of their presence. Many states have their own versions of Megan’s Law, some requiring more pub lic notification than others. Oconee County in Georgia not only noti fies neighbors, but publishes the name, address, photograph and place of work of SOs in the newspaper and on the Web upon their arrival. Texas allows search of SO informa tion by ZIP code and by last name. A person considering moving to a new town can check the ZIP code of their intended destination, or someone with sus picions can check the database for the suspect’s name or alias. Once ypon a time, people did the battalioin right thing because it was the right thing, or because they valued their places in so ciety, or else they did the right thing because do ing the wrong thing could get them stoned to death. Indeed, some people broke taboos. Often, when someone committed an offense, he or she was punished by ostracism. If the result of publicizing an SO’s history is ostracism, so be it. If SOs are isolated from so ciety, at least society is safer. If fear of ostracism has any effect on the behavior of sexual preda tors, great. The Declaration of Independence says that all men were created equal. By their actions, a few prove that not all men (or women) are able to remain equal. Unfortunate ly, some are capable of unimaginably vile acts, and society has a right and a duty to protect it self from severely deviant and potentially dan gerous behavior. In the case of sexual offenders, public notification enables that self-protection. Ann Hart is a senior English major. an editor position? jld you like to mak o you have in \o be on the staff? nee do you have osition you are RIL 20 MAIL CALL Aggie ring standards should not be lowered for transfer students In response to Summer Hicks’April 3 column. The Ring Office rightfully discriminates against transfer students. By Hicks' reasoning, a student should be able to walk in and order his ring after one semester. Perhaps we should do away with the tradition of a single ring for all stu dents and allow anyone who has the cash to buy some bright, shiny, maroon-stoned high school ring. I, and many others like me, am anxiously awaiting 4 o' clock on Thursday, when I'll pick up my hard-earned Aggie ring and put it on for the first time. I've worked for coming on three years to get ahead of schedule and order my ring early. One could not walk into the Corps Center tomorrow and strap on senior boots like some of us will after three years of hard work and memories. Likewise, a transfer student should not be able to walk in after one semester and order the ring that so many of us have worked for so long to have the right to wear. If having lifelong memories of Aggieland and a constant post-graduation reminder sitting on her finger is not enough for Hicks, then I pity her. The fact that I will get to wear my ring for the next 50 years is much more significant than wearing it for the next 15 months. Christopher J. Mewett Class of ’01 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author’s name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and ac curacy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1.111 Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com
