Monday
Janay2,20
02004 The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 83
One-hundred-thirteen years ofeditorialfreedom
Weahr
rain during
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urries and4
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om JIM
Students show
concern about
RIAA
By Aymar Jean
Daily Staff Reporter
WAN'
Final stage of search for new
housing director commences
Several days after a group representing the
music industry cracked down on users illegally
sharing music by filing hundreds of lawsuits
and targeting nine University students, students
are expressing concern about the legality of
downloading media files.
The Recording Industry Association of Ameri-
ca, file-sharing's most aggressive opponent, can-
not view a user's copyrighted material unless that
person is sharing, or uploading, files.
For this reason, LSA senior Jeff Hurvitz does
not allow the uploading of files from his comput-
er anymore.
"I turned it off after I started hearing about the
lawsuits," said Hurvitz,
adding that he downloads "t s
music to save money on It was reall
CDs he does not want to home when
buy.
LSA freshman Nisha kids here go
Patel echoed this senti- and one of t
ment. "It was really
brought home when the was a girl fr
. kids here got caught, do
and one of the people dorm.'
was a girl from our
dorm," she said.
But unlike Hurvitz and
Patel, many students on
campus are unaware that
they are permitting files
to be uploaded from their computers.
Jack Bernard, assistant general counsel to the
University and intellectual property specialist,
explained file-sharing on campus by comparing stu-
dents' understanding of music-downloading soft-
ware to their understanding of cars they drive.
"Many students drive, and they know how to
drive very well, but they don't know how the inter-
nal combustion engine works," Bernard said.
Recent announcements by the recording indus-
try have underscored its commitment to challeng-
ing the online sharihg of°o yrighted materials.
Last Wednesday night, users of University
Housing Interne services received an e-mail
y brought
the seven
t caught,
he people
om our
- Nisha Patel
LSA freshman
Providers like the University.
Since RIAA intended tc
subpoena the University stu-
dents in Decemtber before
that court decision, any legal
action tak. by. RIAAi4
subject to increased legal
scrutiny, Bernard said.
The University has not
released the information
about the nine students and
does not intend' to do sc
until RIAA has overcome
the necessary, legal barriers.
University spokeswomar
Julie Peterson said.
RIAA has yet to file a law,
irnings
announcing that the University had received nine
notices of intent to subpoena the identity of Inter-
net users suspected of sharing copyrighted materi-
als. The notices were filed by the RIAA. At least
seven of these students were living in the resi-
dence halls, according to the e-mail.
The same day, the RIAA announced that it filed
532 anonymous lawsuits against computer users
in Washington and New York also suspected of
illegally sharing files. The nine notices received
by the University are not included in these suits.
By filing these lawsuits against "John Doe
defendants - users designated only by their
Internet protocol addresses - RIAA circumvent-
ed a decision recently made by an appellate court
limiting the use of subpoenas to obtain names and
contact information from Internet Service
By Alison Go
Daily Staff Reporter
The final stage of the search for a new
housing director who will jumpstart major
changes in University housing begins today.
Nobody has permanently held the position
since the departure of former director Bill
Zeller in January of last year.
In order to fill the vacant position, Vice
President for Student Affairs E. Royster
Harper convened a search advisory commit-
tee in September to determine who will hold
the dual position of Director of University
Housing and Assistant Vice President for
Student Affairs.
The committee, comprised of 13 people,
has whittled down the candidate pool to
four people.
These four can-
didates will each
hold a public pres-
entation during
their on-campus
interview this
week. Recommen-
dations made by
the advisory com-
mittee and evalua- FIRST IN A FIVE-
tions filled out by PART SERIES
the public will
eventually be given to Harper, w'o Will
choose the new permanent housing director.
The candidates, in order of their presenta-
tions, are Carole Henry from the University of
Connecticut, Frankie Minor from the Univer-
sity of Missouri, Michael Coakley from
Northern Illinois University and Fred Fotis
from the University of British Columbia.
Presentations will be held at 2 p.m. in vari-
ous rooms of the Michigan Union each day,
starting today. Henry, Coakley and Fotis will
present in the Pond Room, while Minor will
present in the Wolverine Room.
The future director will be responsible for
leading the development and implementation of
long-range housing projects.
"We're in the process of revitalizing and
remodeling new residence halls," Harper said.
"During the new director's tenure, the renova-
See HOUSING Page 3A
suit against anyone using University Housing Inter-
net services. Currently, RIAA does not plan to sue
individuals whose information it has already
obtained, though it is not precluded from doing sc
in the future, an RIAA spokesperson said.
"Pending further resolution by the courts on the
propriety of the (Digital Millennium Copyright
Act) subpoena process, we will not make any use
of the names that were previously disclosed to us
pursuant to DMCA subpoenas," an RIAA
spokesperson said in a written statement. The
spokesperson added that the group would pursue
any litigation that has been filed.
See RIAA, Page 7A
Profs: Disabled,
gay students add
to
'
diversity
By Michael Kan
Daily Staff Reporter
To many at the University, diversity
and race have become synonymous
with each other, as school officials
have made a concerted effort to
encourage students from all racial
backgrounds to join the student body.
But yesterday, students and faculty
explored the term "diversity" even fur-
ther by breaking down the racial con-
notations of the word and recognizing
that diversity encompasses many dif-
ferent social groups within our society.
Held at the Michigan League, the
"Redefining Diversity Conference"
aimed to give attendees a greater under-
standing of diversity and why it should
be promoted. This was done through
small workshops on individual topics,
such as academic diversity at the school
and how students could connect with
other minority groups on campus.
Moreover, coordinators of the event
wanted to show attendees that the word
"minority" not only includes different
races, but also includes groups with
different sexual orientations and peo-
ple with disabilities.
"The goal was, we wanted to talk
about different minority issues. To stray
away from the words 'racial minority'
and to recognize we have all these other
minorities," said Erin Johnson, event
coordinator and president of the Univer-
sity chapter of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People.
Johnson, an LSA senior, said many
of these minority groups face similar
issues to racial minorities, such as false
perceptions and stereotypes. Yester-
day's conference was meant to help
See DIVERSITY, Page 3A
Music workshop
teaches spiritual,
emotional lesson
on social 1ssues
By Caroline Saudek
and Karen Schwartz
Daily Staff Reporters
Audience members nodded along, their lips moving with
the words many seemed to know by heart. Some listened
with their eyes closed when the Long Hairz Collective took
the stage Friday night, as the group brought their blend of
"hip-hop, poetry, folk and blues music" to the East Quad
Residential College Auditorium.
Re-uniting for an afternoon workshop and evening per-
formance as part of the 17th Annual Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Symposium, the group of University alumni
shared a message of activism and
hope with the more than 75 concert-
goers and 40 workshop participants.
The workshop - titled, "Lather.
Rinse. Repeat.: Long Hairz Collec-
tive Workshop on the Integration of
Art, Activism, and Culture" -
brought together community mem-
bers to discuss the state of social
justice today.
"Their spoken word is really cen-
tered around social justice and iden-
tity, and this relates to the MLK
Symposium so we wanted to bring
them here," said event organizer 4
Stephanie Chang, United Asian
American Organizations external chair. Chang, an LSA jun-
ior, said she had seen the group perform before and was
inspired by their music and their message. "Plus, they're just
really good so we wanted to bring them back again."
The workshop was about a spiritual, emotional and social
kind of learning, said Long Hairz Collective member Joe Reil-
ly, emphasizing the benefits of experiencing the University in
more than just an academic sense. "It was an amazing group of
people coming together to learn," he said. "Learning is so
much more than what happens in a classroom or in a book."
Workshop participants individually composed written
reflections on social issues and their hopes for the future.
Then they shared their writing in teams, combining their
work in impromptu collaborative performances, one of
Photo Illustration by FOREST CASEY/Daily
The University is converting more than 20,000 existing books and journals into digital files accessible over
the Internet.
Digital"lbrary collectiOn lets
students research from home
By Lindsey Paterson
Daily Staff Reporter
Ever wished the University had more academic
resources available from your home computer?
Performing research at home through the Inter-
net has not often been an option if scholarly
resources are needed. Adding extra pain to the
tiresome library trip, some resources stored on
microfilm require long hours of searching.
But it may no longer be necessary to physically
go to the library in order to perform research or
to sort through miles of microfilm in order to
find information.
The University library system has begun pre-
serving its older resources by assembling them in
the Digital General Collection, an online compila-
tain that the collection would be able to support
widespread access to all of the resources.
One of the most important features of this new
technology is the "text search" element. Text
search allows the user to search for a key word,
author, title, subject and more in the document.
"Text search is definitely an option. That's one
of the things we did early on. It's one of the things
that has been transformative with our colleagues,"
said John Wilkin, library information technology
associate.
Text search differentiates the Digital General
Collection from microfilm. Instead of sifting
through every page of microfilm to find results,
text search cuts down the necessary time and
effort - and the frustration that occurs after time
is expended and no material is found.
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