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"I
n
Opinion
The Battalion
Page 9 • Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Prosecuting the un
Irrationally suing file swappers will only continue
W hen the
MP3
file for
mat brought CD-
quality sound and
Internet service
providers became
capable of provid
ing downloads in
less than a minute,
music files hit the
Internet and music lovers jumped
on. The image of the college stu
dent sitting in a residence hall
downloading music on a high
speed internet line has already
become a stereotype.
Unfortunately, the Recording
Industry Association of America is
earning its own stereotype — the
black hat and trench coat of a
secret policy bent on terrorizing
12-year-olds and circumventing the
law in the name of upholding it.
The RIAA, this month, won
approval for around ! ,600 subpoe
nas for suspected file-sharers,
including parents, roommates and
grandparents. The RIAA logs onto
file-sharing programs such as
Kazaa or Morpheus and looks for
individuals sharing files. These
programs allow a person to view a
user’s directory of MP3s. Until
recently, no one has questioned
this method.
“You cannot bypass people’s
constitutional rights to privacy,
due process and anonymous asso
ciation to identify an alleged
infringer,” says Daniel N. Ballard,
the attorney representing the per
son known only as “nycfashion-
girl." Her case is the first to chal
lenge the RIAA’s subpoena cam
paign since it was launched earli
er this year, claiming that its
methods violate the Fourth
Amendment which upholds “the
right of the people to be secure
in their persons, houses, papers
and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures.”
The RIAA has to first search
the contents of a suspect’s com
puter before it has any reason to
suspect him of misconduct. This is
akin to the police randomly
knocking on doors and searching a
house for drugs. However, since
the RIAA is not the police, it
claims it is not subject to the
Fourth Amendment.
If going after people in a way
that attempts to skirt the
Constitution isn’t bad enough, the
RIAA is using even worse judg
ment in the people it’s going after.
Recently, the RIAA successfully
sued 12-year-old Manhattan honor
student Brianna LaHara.
According to The Washington
Post, a coalition of companies that
run Internet file-sharing services
has offered to pick up the cost, but
while that girl is off the hook, the
RIAA is not.
“We don’t condone copyright
infringement, but it’s time for the
RIAA’s winged monkeys to fly
back to the castle and leave the
Munchkins alone,” said Adam
Eisgrau, a copyright lawyer for
P2P United, the lobbying group
representing six file-sharing serv
ices that offered to pay Brianna’s
$2,000 settlement.
The Senate is beginning to
recognize the deplorable methods
and choice of victims to their
legal assault.
“Are you headed to junior
high schools to round up the
usual suspects?”
Sen. D-Ill. Dick
Durbin asked
RIAA President
Cary Sherman
during a Senate
judiciary hearing.
Durbin also went
on to say that, while he
appreciated the piracy
threat to the recording
industry, he warned that
the industry will have a hard time
going after offenders without
appearing heavy-handed in the
process.
To say that the RIAA’s action
in going after grandparents and
12-year-olds is heavy-handed, is a
kinder appraisal than it deserves.
In an effort to help its terrible
image, the RIAA offered an amnesty
program to any file-sharers who step
forward after being accused and
pledge to cease and desist.
But this is only a rouse.
Such a pledge admits to
wrongdoing and opens the individ
ual up for future lawsuits by the
individual artists. The “Clean
Slate” program is actually a poor
ly disguised pit trap with the lions
waiting eagerly below.
Mahesh Neelakantan • THE BATTALION
The RIAA’s scare tactics are
enough to make one rush to his
computer and download a few
CDs just to thumb a nose at such
an evil organization. The music
industry failed to see the Internet
until it became too late, as the
shiny toy of high-speed home
Internet access seemed to be a
more attractive alternative to high-
priced CDs.
Now that CD sales have fallen
more than 25 percent in recent
years, the RIAA is hoping to save
music sales by scaring people
away instead of finding a way to
utilize popular technology to turn
a profit.
Scaring customers and suing
children is certainly no way to
bring back loyal customers, and
until the RIAA cleans up its act, it
is only hurting its cause.
Mike Walters is a senior
psychology major
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I Biased war reporting
Journalists should not focus on negatives
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A jeep rolled to a halt outside Abu
Ghraib prison, near Baghdad in
August. Mazen
Dana and other newsmen
were there covering the after
effects of a mortar attack at
the U.S.-run prison. The vet
eran combat correspondent
stepped out of the vehicle,
raised his video camera to
his shoulder and aimed it at a
group of U.S. soldiers.
Seconds later, Dana was
dead after being shot in the
chest. The soldiers, already tense from the
! harsh conditions and continuous harassment
. by Iraqi criminals, mistook his camera for a
. rocket-propelled grenade. Dana became the
I 17th journalist to die in Iraq since the war
' began on March 20, according
tosocialnerve.com.
The accident was regret
table, but these hateful reac
tions only serve to expose the
bias that exists in much of the
international media. Many
journalists will take any
opportunity to bash the Allied
war effort in Iraq. Attempts
should be made to maintain
objectivity, before journalists
lose further credibility.
Wanting revenge for a war
correspondent's death in war is
similar to wanting revenge for a sportswriter
getting hit with a basketball while covering a
game. That connection has, surprisingly, not
been made by many media types. ABC News
correspondent Bob Sirkin has asserted that
Dana was “murdered by ignorant, trigger-happy
and badly trained soldiers.” Khalid Amayreh, a
writer for Islamic Association for Palestine
News, wrote an article that was ostensibly a
news feature but which called the American sol
diers “trigger-happy” and claimed they did not
attempt to give Dana first-aid but watched as he
bled to death.
This is a blatant lie: French newsman
Stephan Breitner, who was a friend of Dana’s
and present at his death, said the soldiers tried
to save him. Breitner did say, however, that he
“didn’t think (the shooting) was an accident.”
The Palestinian Journalist Association called it
a “brutal, coldblooded murder” and an exam
ple of America’s “state terror.”
In fact, a U.S. Army officer announced mon-
day that the soldiers were acting within the
rules of engagement when they fired on Dana.
This is just one example of the heavy media
bias that persisted throughout the major fight-
Wanting revenge for a
war correspondent^
death in war is similar to
wanting revenge for a
sportswriter getting hit
with a basketball during a
game.
ing in Iraq.
The media’s slant was obvious even before
the war started when Democratic senators,
angry CNN analysts and cowardly United
Nations members wanted to tastefully ignore
conditions in Iraq. The media’s portrayal of
these dissenters was often that they were
“voices of reason.” Video of war protesters
blared nonstop, but what of the pro-Bush ral
lies? No video ever ran of them — only small
below-the-fold pictures in local papers.
No newspapers and only one major network
ran video or photos of jubilant throngs of
relieved Iraqis welcoming the American libera
tors. In fact, it was so difficult to find negative
aspects of the war to exaggerate that many net
works and papers became fixated on the loot
ing of Iraqi museums and department stores.
Watching the endless coverage of shoeless,
Iraqis carrying off televisions,
one had to wonder what was
so newsworthy about it, and if
it was really that important
not to show anything that
might be seen as pro-Bush.
There is no question that
Mazen Dana’s death is sad.
However, Dana was a war cor
respondent. Danger is an
accepted risk of the job. He
knew these risks and returned
to combat even after being
shot four times in the past few
years. He was even beaten
unconscious by a mob in Hebron. These inci
dents never swayed him from being a war corre
spondent — a profession Dana considered to
be his calling. Dana died following that calling,
and there are few who are lucky enough to do
so. Yet many of his colleagues suggest in harsh
terms that revenge be exacted on the Bush
administration or America in general.
These claims and ones similar to them are
ridiculous, and it is in bad taste to use some
one’s death to promote a political agenda.
American soldiers didn’t “kill the messenger
because they hated the message,” as Amayreh
whines. They made a horrible, disastrous mis
take, but it was still a mistake. The soldiers
should by no means go unpunished, but there
was obviously no malice being directed toward
Dana, an innocent journalist. The media
around the world need to stop looking for
ammunition to use against America and its
president, and start reporting the news without
slant or bias.
Nick Nethery is a senior
history major.
MAIL CALL
Computer system
inaccessible again
This letter comes to you via
the old-fashioned method —
handwritten and delivered.
For the past three weeks
our campus computer sys
tem has been less than effi
cient. Today, after a frustrat
ing 20 minutes of attempting
to access the system, it told
me it was seeking alternative
paths of access. When I was
on, I was told NEO was
unavailable. The help desk
suggested that if I did not
need to be on the computer,
please try again later
because the system is hav
ing problems.
Three of my classes use
WEBCT. Two classes require
access to ICE Web sites. My
instructor and coaches
request communication via
e-mail. Instructors constantly
us to Web sites for study.
Dr. Gates, is $9 more per
credit hour going to fix the
computer system?
Linda Langlitz
Class of 2004
Incorrectly sawing
varsity's horns off
As an old Aggie,! have
noticed that over the past 10
or 15 years we have forgot
ten how to saw varsity’s
horns off. Today, everyone
sways in the same direction.
We used to alternate rows
with the odd rows going to
left first and the even rows
going to the right first. It
gives a much more interest
ing visual effect than every
one going the same direc
tion. How about it, Yell
Leaders?
Chris Schneider
Class of 1975
Biology supports
theory of evolution
In response to a Sept. 18
mail call:
I cannot let Mr. Rainey’s let
ter go without comment. He
invokes an out-of-context
quotation from “renowned
evolutionist Paul Amos
Moody” to posit that evolu
tionary biologists “couldn’t
prove Darwin’s Theory of
Evolution.” Paul Amos
Moody’s scientific heyday
was in the 1950s. In fact, the
quotation comes from
Moody’s 1953 textbook
“Introduction to Evolution,”
which I happen to have from
my father’s college days. You
can’t even get this book from
Amazon.corn’s out of print
files. I would suggest to Mr.
Rainey that quite a bit of bio
logical research has been
performed since 1953.
Secondly, proper scientific
inquiry is not about “proving
theories.” It is designed to
disprove hypotheses that
support theories, and no sci
entific experiment since
1859, when Darwin first pub
lished his theory, has been
able to disprove Darwin’s
magnum opus.
Therefore, Mr. Rainey’s
entire argument is without
basis.
Science cannot and does
not exclude a Designer, but,
at the same time, the study
of the evolution of life on
Earth does not require one.
Further, the invocation of
such a Designer is outside
the boundaries of what we
practice as scientists. I
strongly suggest that all
good Aggies take a course in
introductory biology, read the
evidence and think about it.
Vincent M. Cassone, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
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Letters may be submitted in person at
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