(
Tuesday,Aptij
OPINION
lay, April 4, 2(X)()
THE BATTALION
Page 13
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MELISSA
BEDSOLE
IX
Universities’
tes teaching kids bdn of
to build bombs {JSeful MP3
when sites get program
m
Iteiftiut down, there
GeorgeBargumenis of
â– 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 â–  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-
â– '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
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curacy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed McDonald with a valid
student ID. Letters may also be mailed to:
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