1 III4WC4 i0 an at IV
0 Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, October 30, 2009
michigandaily.com
COURSEPACK CONTROVERSY
Excel loses
lawsuit over
copyrights
Campus coursepack
shop owner sued for
* do-it-yourself
method of copying
By JOSEPH LICHTERMAN
Daily StaffReporter
Students looking to save a buck
by photocopying their course read-
ings may run into some trouble,
after Excel Test Preparation suf-
fered a major defeat in its lawsuit
with five publishing companies
regarding charges of copyright
infringement.
Blackwell Publishing, Elsevier,
Oxford University Press, SAGE
Publications and John Wiley &
Sons accused Excel of copyright
infringement on 33 of their publi-
cations.
Excel, located on South Uni-
versity Avenue, is one of the many
stores in Ann Arbor that produces
coursepacks for students and fac-
ulty at the University.
Many other local copy shops
like Dollar Bill Printing on Church
Street, copy and bind the material
for coursepacks provided to them
by University faculty members. At
Excel, though, customers individu-
ally copy and bind the master copy
of the material that was provided
to the shop by the professor.
The publishing companies
allege, however, that Excel's cheap,
do-it-yourself policy regarding
coursepacks is against the law.
In June 2007, the publishers
filed a complaint in federal court
claiming that Excel had breached
federal copyright law by notpaying
the publishers for the rights to copy
the material for profit.
Boston Attorney William Strong
is representing the publishers in
the lawsuit and said in an inter-
view this week that there are many
similar intellectual property cases
around the country, but the Excel
case especially caught the publish-
ers' attentions.
"We learned about Excel's busi-
ness practice, which was not to pay
any copyright fees," Strong said.
"And we felt that we could not let
that go unchallenged."
According to court documents,
Norman Miller, the owner of Excel,
claims that the store's copying
policies are completely legal. He
contends that Excel's actions are
protected under the fair use stipu-
lation of U.S. copyright law.
"Since each student is mak-
ing just one copy for his or her
own individual use, no copyright
permissions or royalty fees are
involved," Miller said in the court
documents.
Federal District Judge Avern
Cohn issued a summary judgment
on Monday agreeing with the pub-
lishers' claim that Excel broke the
law.
"The fact that the students push
See LAWSUIT, Page 7
MAX COLINS/Daily
LSA senior Katie Niedzielski buys clothes yesterday for her Halloween costume at Star Vintage located on State Street. The store, which specializes in 1960s and '70s
vintage clothes and furniture thrives around seasonal events like Halloween - when their sales increase to around $1,000 a day.
outh U. post office spared
Loc
41(
co
Tha
gell (D
Centra
short v
The
post of
ation was one of one of 410 post office locations fac-
ing the chopping block this year,
0 locations that but it's now remaining open, much
to the relief of many Ann Arbor
uld have closed residents who live in the area.
Dingell was at the forefront of
By NICOLE ABER the effort to save the post office,
Daily StaffReporter located at 1214 S. University Ave.
The post office served as a key
nks to U.S. Rep. John Din- resource for members of the Uni-
'-Dearborn), residents near versity community, a demograph-
l Campus will still have a ic, Dingell wrote in an e-mail
'alk to the post office. interview, that he is determined to
South University Avenue serve.
'fice was initially considered "It was clear to me from the
location of this postal station that
it did not make sense to close it,"
Dingellwrote. "It's inthe middle of
the U of M campus. Having a half
dozen of U of M grads on (my) staff
helped put this in perspective. Not
only did they use this station, it
was the only one they had used in
their time at school there."
Dingell said if the South Uni-
versity location was to close, many
Ann Arbor residents would switch
to different mail carriers, some-
thing he wanted to prevent.
"I also looked at the profile
of the permanent residents who
live close to the station," Dingell
wrote. "If it closed, many people
in the neighborhood would prob-
ably have opted to switch carriers
rather than drive to another post
office. I didn't want that."
Though Dingell said it would
remain open, the South Univer-
sity post office is technically still
on the U.S. Postal Regulatory
Commission's list of locations
being discussed for consolidation,
according to Ed Moore, manager
See POST OFFICE, Page 7
SIDEWALK SOUNDS
IlE 1/ -AXfI
RE-WRITING HEALTH CARE'S RULES
Leaving a mark on the
nation's health debate
ARIELBOND/Daily
The digital music ensemble class took its work outdoors, mounting an infrared sensor on a sidewalk that dictated - based on how
many people walked by - the pace of music being created by a computer program. The class also wrapped plastic sheets around
trees to represent "the labyrinth that is your life," according to Owen Campbell, a senior in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN MICHIGANs
Mich. offic1is discuss new pot rules
'U' researchers
introduced Value-
Based Insurance
Design to Congress
By DARRYN FITZGERALD
Daily Staff Reporter
The much-debated health care
reform legislation winding its way
through U.S. Congress carries a
distinct University of Michigan
stamp on it.
Research from the School of
Public Health's Center for Value-
Based Insurance Design has con-
tributed directly to the legislation
that is currently being considered
in both the House of Representa-
tives and the Senate.
The basic philosophy of V-BID
is to encourage insurers to modify
their payout structures to make
essential drugs more affordable
for individuals, which in theory
could, over time lower their total
payouts and provide care that pro-
motes the overall health of soci-
ety.
To accomplish this, the
researchers suggest the prices of
medical products and services
should be modified so those more
beneficial to patients - like hyper-
tensionmedication - are relatively
less expensive than those less vital
Feds will no longer na patients or caregivers in the 13
states that have legalized the drug
prosecute medical for medicinal purposes. That's a
move that medical marijuana advo-
pot users in 13 states cates in Michigan say will allow
pain-stricken citizens to seek treat-
* By NICOLE ABER ment with less of an emotional bur-
Daily StaffReporter den.
- - - While the new policy will not
Patients looking to use medical change federal marijuana laws,
marijuana have just won one more many proponents of the use of
battle. marijuana for medicinal purposes
The federal government will no say the new guidelines released by
longer prosecute medical marijua- President Barack Obama's adminis-
tration are a step forward for medi-
cal marijuana initiatives.
Inastatement released by the U.S.
DepartmentofJustice last week, Dep-
uty Attorney General David Ogden
wrote that the federal regulation of
marijuana in states that have legal-
ized it for medicinal purposes has
been complicated by inconsistencies
between federal and state laws. He
also wrote that the new guidelines -
under which the federal prosecutors
will no longer intervene - reflect a
See MARIJUANA, Page 7
Jenifer Martin and Dr. Mark Fendrick, two members of the team that pushed for
Value-Based Insurance Design to be included in health care reform legislation, sit
insid'th' A AlrdTaub"man HealthtCare Center earlier thisweek
to an individual's health - like
erectile dysfunction medication.
"The people who do nothing
to keep themselves healthy pay
the same amount as those who
eat what their grandmother tells
them," said Mark Fendrick, one of
the group's researchers.
The way the health care system
functions now with co-pays, most
patients pay the same amount to
receive medical services of entire-
ly different medical values, the
researchers said. But both their
findings and the current health
care crisis indicate that this one-
size-fits-all approach isn't work-
ing.
"(Under the current system)
there's no distinction between
something that has a high - ver-
sus low-clinical value, between a
drug that would save your life or
See HEALTH CARE, Page 7
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