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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2000)
Tuesday, September 5,2000 yers of :week lounced Tuesday, September 5, 2000 Page 5B THE BATTALION .AS (AP) — Texas Tech . arlos Francis, Kansas nsiveend Monty Beisel imate Aaron Lockett ed Monday the Big I2's ' the week. s set a school freshman th 234 yards on seven s Tech beat Utah State e was 8 yards shy of the Big 12 single-game yardage record and 18 am the single-game ark. He also returned tts 61 yards, was credited with 13 eluding live unassisted, es tor losses of 11 yards, sacks for 9 yards in tie's season-opening27- »ver Iowa on Aug. 26. t earned special teams r his performance last n a 54-10 victory over Tech. Filling in for en. Lockett had 65 net ree punt returns, includ- trder for a touchdown. opener an offseason trade will carted off the field in the iites of Sunday’s game with four catches for62 ding a 4-yard catch foi >' only touchdown. >d news is he’s repairec in ACL before,’' Cow erry Jones said Monda; ustained the ninth con s 12-year NFL career at' ked for the fourth time ilf of the opener, it the hospital wouldaf oe considered day-by iaid. Soap operas for men Professional wrestling, WCW should be judged for what they are: pure fun VNNED ? F IT ALONE, W hile coming back from my first class last Mon day, 1 sat next to a wide- eyed freshman on the bus. As it wound through campus, he looked at the throngs of people going to and from class with the awe and amazement that only a true newbie can feel. When the bus finally made its stop outside Reed Arena, the freshman became extremely excited and turned to me to say something. 1 could tell by the look on his face that he was really worked up about something. Perhaps it was apprehen sion about his first day of college. Maybe he was excit ed to finally be a real Texas A&M student. When he fi nally spoke, the question that came forth from his lips both surprised and amused me. “Hey. man,” he asked, pointing to Reed Arena, “do you know how 1 can get some wrestling tickets?” If there is one thing that can distract the 18-year-old male from the fact that he is finally out of the house and surrounded by 20,000 college-age women, it is professional wrestling. For many boys, teens and grown men, wrestling is more than just a sport — it is a way of life. Professional wrestling is no longer subjugated to small-town grade school cafeterias; it is a thriving branch of the entertainment industry with television , coverage on a variety of networks. Now some of those television cameras are here in College Station for tonight’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW) event in Reed Arena. As thousands of Aggies watch from their seats, some of the biggest and toughest guys in America will perform choreo graphed battle and ham it up for the ringside cameras. As is the case with nearly everything, there is a seg ment of the population that detests professional wrestling. Concerned parents, with stern looks on their faces, warn that wrestling is a bud influence on young boys. In their eyes, it promotes violence and misan thropic behavior to America’s adolescents. To these critics, it is perhaps the greatest threat to decency and normalcy since the hippie movement of the 1960s. If this is true, the nation must not stop at ending professional wrestling. It also needs to take a hard look at afternoon television soap operas — when a person gets down to it, professional wrestling is just one big testosterone-filled soap opera. Just like “All My Children,” professional wrestling has scripted friendships and betrayals, implausible plots and characters that are larger than life. Just as fe- Mail Call * # • # ♦ r * male-targeted soap operas deliver storylines punctuated with ro mance, infidelity and the occa sional crime, male-oriented wrestling mixes the realms of sports and combat into a single entity punctuated with the occa sional crime. Those who criticize wrestling as nothing more than mindless violence obviously have never taken the time to sit down and ac tually watch it. While the mind lessness of wrestling seems somewhat unquestionable, the vi- .olence controversy is blown out of proportion. The kicks, punches and slams of the giant acrobats are so chore ographed that they often resem ble a brawl from West Side Story. Not even first graders are naive enough to believe that the men in the ring are actually fighting. The most important aspect of professional wrestling has noth ing to do with wrestling itself. Night in and night out, the cam eras spend more time on individ ual personalities, boasting of their great physical prowess and pandering to the crowd. In a two- hour program, little more than 20 minutes will feature any form of physical activity at all. If the writers of "ER” run out of script ideas, they invent a 20- car pile-up to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. When the professional wrestling scribes run out of things to add to their con voluted plot, they mix in a little mindless mayhem. Surprisingly, the background stories utilize some of the classic themes of literature — good guys, bad guys, revenge, vindication, honor, betrayal, joy and despair. Certainly, it is not Shakespeare, but it does a good enough job holding the attention of its audience. In many ways, wrestling is the only purely American form of performance art. In the world of wrestling, other critics complain that women are portrayed as little more than sex objects. Apparently, these people have never seen the 20-some thing Fabio clone doctors who seem to make up the entire collection of male actors in shows such as “As The World Turns” and “Days Of Our Lives.” Even the elderly grandfather characters have a tor rid love affair with their grandson’s wife’s neighbor’s uncle’s dental hygienist every once in a while. Yes, wrestling is mindless. Yes, wrestling is stupid. But it provides a sizeable portion of the male popula tion with something that all humans need — a tempo rary escape from the trials and tribulations of daily life. In many ways, wrestling actually resembles real life more than the afternoon teledramas. When was the last time a person heard about Gold berg’s mother being abducted by an ultra-radical revo lutionary group on some unnamed tropical island? RUBEN DELUNAAl'm-: Battauon Wrestling is inane. It needs to be. Whether people prefer their entertainment with sweaty guys smashing metal chairs on each other’s heads or a thrice-divorced doctor seducing the trendy fashion magazine editor, they need stupidity in their lives. Let the wrestling fans have their fun tonight at Reed Arena. In a collegiate environment that becomes more and more stressful with each passing semester, chances for mindless fun like this do not come around very often. Nicholas Roznovsky is a senior political science major. inities tn • • • tions available for hardware support, complete training,! in the MSC to see 3C ■r >c ;c iC )f our employees, I ointment to speak § Religion not exclusive to conservative party In response to Mark Passwaters’Aug. 30 column. Passwaters must be speaking in jest when he suggests that the Demo cratic Party has spent years "denying their Lord.” Religion has not now, nor has it ever ! been, solely the domain of the right. To suggest otherwise is lamentable and misguided. To suggest that religion’s influence is premised in the parties’ increasing move tovyard the political middle only exacerbates the situation. The end of “welfare as we know it” was the product of a collaboration be tween the GOP and the “moderate” De mocrats so frequently associated with the Democratic Leadership Council. While Republicans are often quick to cite their own support for such policies before they become politically fashion able, such support hardly seems in keeping with the social justice impera tives of most major religious denomina tions. To suggest that Gov. Bush and his Republican cronies have a monopoly on religiously inspired piety again begs the question of what faith means. For the governor, his own professed Christian faith has done absolutely nothing to al ter the most draconian and inhuman ?rages oing to the he e between 9 a.m.J you. ■ J cm The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Let ters must be 300 words or less and include the au thor's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submit ted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid stu dent ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 014 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University 1111TAMU College Station, Texas 77843 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (979) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com Columns and letters appearing in The Battalion ex press the opinion of the authors only. They do not nec essarily reflect the opinion of other Battalion staff mem bers, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administrators, faculty or staff. criminal justice system in the nation. Gore and Lieberman are men of faith, and that fact makes them neither better nor worse than their electoral ri vals. While pandering may be a valid charge against them, that charge is equally applicable to Gov. Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney. Furthermore, they are members of the Democratic party who have always considered themselves people of faith. The Christian Left remains a vital force for progressive political change in this country, albeit without the press coverage and the support of right-wing multi-millionaires like Richard Mellon- Scaife. Nick Rangel Speech communication doctorate student Longhorn appreciates machine team’s story In response to an AP story in The Bat talion. I was recently informed by an Aggie friend that you ran the Associated Press story regarding the University of Texas-Austin Rube Goldberg Machine Contest team winning the national championship earlier this year. As leader of the team, I speak for all of us when I express my apprecia tion for your publishing that article. The Daily Texan did not have a sin gle word about it. They did not re spond to us telling them numerous times that we were running the ma chine for public viewing. The viewings drew crowds of up to 100 people every hour. Apparently, national championship victories are not exciting enough for them. Maybe they are too liberal to care about anything that sounds engineer ing-related. Do not get me wrong; I bleed burnt orange and I absolutely love UT. But our newspaper sure sucks sometimes. Thank you. Chad Bruns University of Texas-Austin mechanical engineering graduate student A HighCY Stcmdcirct Tougher, enforceable laws are needed to curb rampant online piracy 5 omething about the Internet breeds idealism. From the “e-commerce should be tax-free” argument to the concept of the pub lic domain —- informa tion should be accessi ble to all — the Internet has existed as its own entity, outside conven tional rules and laws. However, there is an other way to view the Internet, firmly planting it in the reality of law books. Un der copyright laws, if people create some thing, such as a photograph, they retain ownership of that creative work. That own ership has been extended to any work that requires a person’s creative input — in cluding software. Since the Internet is basically a jumbled pile of software, the Web is full of intellec tual property rights. However, from MP3s to GIF files to the programs that made Piracy Online Special Series Part 3 oF 3 them, online ownership rights have been trampled over for some time now. The Napster vs. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lawsuit has brought digital copyright infringement into the spotlight, but the fight against piracy online has been a long and mostly quiet one. In 1997, President Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act (NET) that al lows criminal prosecution of copyright infringement, even if the accused is not trying to make money off the infringe ment. This closed a huge loophole in copyright law and advanced the scope of law enforcement. In mid-August, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) received more than $200,000 in settlement money from two companies using unlicensed software prod ucts. With companies like Microsoft, Ap ple, Corel and Symantec in its ranks, the BSA is working harder than ever to protect its members' copyrights. However, if the RIAA, BSA, or any oth er copyright-enforcing body wants to make more than a dent against online piracy, the battle will have to be fought on Capitol Hill, as well as online. The current system of copyright laws works well against tangible infringements, like selling shirts with a company’s logo, but it is inadequate when code and digits are ' being stolen. To realistically enforce copy rights online, there need to be aggressive, enforceable laws with agents actively seek ing out instances of blatant infringement. It is easy for most college students to turn a blind eye to online piracy. It often seems the victim of such infringement is a faceless corporation. Who cares if Bill Gates loses $5 million this year — he can afford it, right? The truth is that other than Gates and his fat-cat cohorts, people are losing to soft ware piracy. One of the reasons retail soft ware prices are so high is that manufactur ers have to compensate for money lost to piracy. Furthermore, the 1999 Global Software Piracy Report determined the United States software industry loses about $3.2.million a year. To recover money lost from bootleg distribution, software companies have kept prices artificially high for more than a decade. In the end, those who purchase software legally pay the price for online piracy. Likewise, the developers who lose money are not always faceless corporations. Just as illegal copies of Microsoft Office are floating around the Internet, so are registra tion keys for and full versions of programs made by amateur developers. College students — even high school stu dents — who put their programs on the In ternet often find their work hacked, cracked and pirated by the unpaying masses. The spectrum of people whose copy rights are ignored online extends beyond software developers. Many college students have created their own Websites with original art work, photographs or writing. While most of these artists are not trying to sell their work through their websites, they probably would want credit for their creativity when it shows up on other sites. The solutions to fighting online piracy start small. When people use other’s creative works, they should recognize the creator’s ownership by paying for use of those works. If somebody wants to use photographs from a Texas A&M sophomore’s personal Website, the student’s permission should be sought and credit should be given. This is a small example of copyright in fringement. Anyone who has checked out the huge number of illegal “warez” sites online has an idea how deep the well of pi rated software runs. To truly stem the tide of blatant copyright infringement on the In ternet, legislation with teeth is needed. Cases that the BSA has successfully settled have been initiated by employees reporting their company’s copyright in fringement. The BSA has attacked mid sized companies that cannot use the Inter net’s anonymity to hide their illegal software copies. But that is exactly what happens in most cases of software piracy — after digging around online, a Web user can find a free copy of pretty much any re tail software. To drain this pool of copyright infringe ment, law enforcement officials should fol low the footsteps of the average Web surfer and actively seek out “warez” sites. Locat ing the sites is not enough. The RIAA’s lawsuit against Napster is putting to test the accusation that providing a link to an illegal file is enough to consti tute copyright infringement. If the courts decide in favor of the RIAA, which the first lawsuit’s ruling already did, the law might finally be able to catch up to online pirates. Following the NET Act’s removal of profit motive, defining links to pirated soft ware as a crime would close another loop hole in copyright law. Actively enforcing that law could cut down on a lot of overt online piracy, and that would benefit all users. Eric Dickens is a senior English major.