Tuesday, September 5,2000
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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
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• • •
tions available for
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complete training,!
in the MSC to see
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)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:
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014 Reed McDonald
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1111TAMU
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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.