0 4 - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-MAIL ELAINE AT EMORT@UMICH.EDU Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu GARY GRACA ROBERT SOAVE COURTNEY RATKOWIAK EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Excelling online Cost of copy shops can be offset by online course materials At several hundred dollars per semester, the cost of course materials can be a sizable burden for many students. For students who purchase coursepacks from Excel Test Preparation, that burden might get a bit heavier. Last week, a federal district court ruled that Excel was violating copyright laws by not paying fees to publishers. And while there is a valid need to clear up the legal issues surrounding copyright laws that affect students, infringing upon students' access to knowledge is problematic. This ruling underscores the need for copyright laws to be friendly to students in the education process, but more importantly should serve as a reminder for professors to make more of their course materials available online. ELAINE MORTON 00 2/7ne -rnc emD: ' to' onnd An elevator to the future 9 Federal District Court Judge Avern Cohn issued a statement Nov. 2 sidingwith several publishers alleging that Excel had commit- ted copyright infringement. In June 2007, Blackwell Publishing, Elsevier, Oxford Uni- versity Press, SAGE Publications and John Wiley & Sons filed suit against Excel and claimed the company had committed copy- right infringement on 33 documents. Excel was targeted because, unlike other copy shops in Ann Arbor, it wasn't paying fees to publishers. Excel owner Norman Mill- er claimed that since students copied the information for their own personal use, the company wasn't violating copyright laws. But the federal district court disagreed, ruling last week that copyrighted materials were being sold for profit and without pay- ment of appropriate fees. Excel's practice of not paying the pub- lishing fees may seem questionable, espe- cially considering that the company was in competition with local businesses that were following the letter of the law and paying the fees. But opaque copyright laws that fail to clarify what is or is not "fair use" for college students are at least partly to blame. These laws need clarification so that all copy shops can follow clear, consistent regulations. But in formulating a consistent legal defi- nition, it should be taken into account that Excel was able to offer its services at half the price of other Ann Arbor copy shops because it didn't pay publishing fees - pro- viding cheaper coursepacks for students. Making course materials less expensive is important. When course materials are too expensive, some students have no choice but to not of buy them and suffer the conse- quences. Copy businesses need tobe able to provide materials to students at a low cost, and if copyright laws prevent this from happening, it might be the laws that need to change. Luckily, many professors are aware of this, and already post their required read- ing materials online for students. Moving academic materials online is an important trend that should become the norm for Uni- versity classes whenever possible. Online access to course'materials can negate some of the costs associated with buying and printing texts, and gives students more options. It also makes knowledge more widely available through the Internet. But students in many classes will con- tinue to need access to hard copies of their materials. For this reason, copy shops will continue to serve a vital purpose and require laws that understand the services they offer to college students. Buried in the news this past week was a story that NASA had announced a winner in its Power Beaming Challenge, a com- - petition aimed at rewarding innova- tive designs that may lead toward a new meansaof getting to space: using an eleva- tor. A space eleva- tor is just one of BEN dozens of projects CALECA rattling around in the brains of futurists that has not only the power to inspire people, but also the potential to change the way people live in general. If our species hopes to make the world a better place, it is essential that orga- nizations such as NASA continue to encourage research into expansive projects for the betterment of our civilization. The space elevator is a perfect example of a massive engineering undertaking to open up access to space by making space travel afford- able. The concept was the brainchild of author Arthur Clarke as an eco- nomical means of getting into space. A cable over 20,000 kilometers long is placed between a floating offshore platform on a body of water and a space station that orbits the Earth at the same rate as the offshore plat- form is moving. An elevator car could move payloads between the two ends of the cable at only a fraction of the cost of current orbital rocket tech- nologies. What's holding the concept back is current technology. Materials strong enough for such a cable don't yet exist outside of laboratories, and a vehicle that can move up such a cable isn't like anything ever before built. The NASA competition aims at help- ing to solve this second dilemma. There are of course, many other avenues for researching massive scale projects. International Ther- monuclear Experimental Reactor is a fusion reactor project in France that could, in theory, solve our clean ener- gy concerns for good through the use of a fusion reactor, that mimics the sun's internal energyprocesses. A cell biologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York last week published a proposal to artificially fertilize great deserts in Africa and Australia. That would create a new ecosystem that would absorb more carbon dioxide than man produces per year, effectively removing man's contribution to global warming. Oth- ers have proposed solar screens the size of countries that would decrease the total sunlight sent to Earth. But these kinds of projects require billions upon billions of dollars - perhaps even trillions - and would require alevel ofcooperationbetween countries that seems unachievable today. Without the ambition to try for such lofty goals, there is less incen- tive for quantum leaps in innova- tion. The exponential rate of growth of technology should be motivation enough for ever bigger projects, and if people are given just a little push to reach for lofty goals, innovators come out of the woodwork. The most recent noteworthy exam- ple was the Ansari X-Prize, a private group that awarded $10 million to the first team to reach space with a privately financed and built space- craft. The group's intention was to spark entrepreneurship and innova- tion to jumpstart space exploration. Within just a few years, engineer Burt Rutan's team, Scaled Com- posites, created what they dubbed SpaceShipOne. The team nwb*'has a budding space tourism venture that uses an upgraded version of Rutan's prize-winning design. Many other proposals for space hotels and space- planes have popped up since then. To say that there isn't excitement over pie in the sky goals is just plain wrong - there's no greater way to get engineers and scientists to use their talents to their fullest or for govern- ments to cooperate better than to give them dreams. What if these kind of endeavors fail? A project like the space elevator or massive geoengineering projects aimed at changing the very climate of Earth are perhaps too difficult for our generation to realize. Perhaps we're fating ourselves to Daedelus' folly by aspiring to such grand ideas. The same thing that happens when other scientific initiatives fail - the thousands of hours of work, the mate- rials developed and tested and the small innovations designed to work around problems in a larger picture all find their way into our lives in ways their creators never intended. Even if we can't build a cable strong enough to hold a space elevator, we might design one strong enough to make safer, stronger and more effi- cient bridges. Big investments in technology will pay off. By financing and encouraging research into ambitious projects, organizations both public and pri- vate that encourage innovation are a benefit to society as a whole. Orga- nizations like NASA and the Ansari X-Prize encourage the first steps toward research in fields that indi- viduald miight otherwise not attempt to tackle on their own. More than making a massive project possible, they give more avenues for intended and unintended advancements in beneficial technology. - Ben Caleca can be reached at calecab@umich.edu. 0 0 a EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Emily Barton, Jamie Block, William Butler, Ben Caleca, Brian Flaherty, Emma Jeszke, Raghu Kainkaryam, Sutha K Kanagasingam, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee, Harsha Panduranaga, Alex Schiff, Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Laura Veith SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. Letters are edited for style, length, clarity and accuracy. All submissions become property of the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedoily@umich.edu. The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed, passionate writers to join the Editorial Board. Editorial Board members are responsible for discussing and writing the editorials that appear on the left side of the opinion page. E-MAIL ROBERT SOAVE AT RSOAVE@UMICH.EDU FOR MORE INFORMATION. 0 Review overlooks value in Sufban Stevens' new album When it comes to criticism of The BQE, I think Mr. Stevens is a victim of his own suc- cessful, pop-albumy past. And it's no surprise, as music fans (myself included) are growing ever more eager for a Michigan and Illinois TO THE DAILY: follow-up. But stepp It's November 2007 and I'm at the Brooklyn picking up such an a Academy of Music, about to see Sufjan Stevens's ect is why he continu premier of The BQE. The stage in front of tme musicians of our gen breathes discomfort on the audience, becoming more and more crowded as the band members Michelle Yu file in, their instruments only inches apart. Add Public Policy graduat to this a backdrop of a large film screen, soon to be displaying images of one of the nations' busi- est expressways - one that connects the New Author was York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. It is hardly a scene that seems it would lead to a the crowd'It pleasing experience, yet the excitement among the audience feels heavy like the brass instru- ments before us. It has been four years since TO THE DAILY: Michigan, two since Illinois and nothing came Regarding Andy of the "Majesty Snowbird" single on Mr. Ste- umn, the University vens' last tour. We are like a pack of indie-rock ey isn't just "racy" (I starved wolves in the middle of Fort Greene, out of Yost Ice Arena and times are getting desperate. The lights It's profane. dim, the stage is set and our Brooklyn hero Yet it's political cor enters the room - Sufjan, our much-revered roids - that hears a p provider of musical nourishment and orches- dick, wuss, doucheb tral movements in the dark. bitch, whore, slut, c Having been at The BQE premiere (and singles out gay pract having paid six times face value for a ticket cule. Nobody puts t1 to attend) you may or may not consider my ness quite like Ann A response to The Michigan Daily's review of This news flash jus the release biased. But labeling the project in a chicken suit, occ "a wonky mess" deserves a reaction (Sufjan's glass and bellowing i winding road: 'The BQE', 10/25/2009). Yes, it is "participating in the true the project was ambitious and seemingly ing it, "dude." too big a concept to fit into a 40-minute multi- Why slam the Ath media experience, but if the goal was to convey nothing "for the last] the chaos of New York City traffic ("Movement exactly what you wa IV: Traffic Shock"), the qualms of city plan- disingenuous, don't] ning ("Movement V: Self-Organizing Emergent a critique of the Ath Patterns") and evoke the feelings of solitude something - ejecting ("Postlude: Critical Mass"), peace ("Movement cheerleader - just b It: Sleeping Invader") and occasional self-real- head was you? ization ("Movement I: In the Countenance of Should've tasered} Kings") commuters experience in their vehi- activated. ("Fortunat cles, then The BQE is more than successful. The bered for just such feelings of disconnection and awkwardness in Leghorn.) both the footage and music, I believe, is exactly what Mr. Stevens was hoping would emerge Nord Christensen from the project. Alum ping outside the norm and ambitious and unique proj- es to be one of the greatest eration. e student sn't just one of 'n C-Ya' chant Reid's SportsMonday col- 's 'C-Ya' chant for ice hock- I shouldn't have been kicked this weekend, 11/08/2009). rrectness - on stilts and ste- ublic recitation of "...chump, ag, asshole, prick, cheater, ocksucker" as a chant that titioners of fellatio for ridi- he "tic" in political correct- rbor. st in, Andy: If you're dressed upying the aisle next to the nto a megaphone, you aren't 'C-Ya' chant." You're lead- letic Department for doing 15 years," when "nothing" is nted them to do? Just a tad you think, to then pivot to letic Department for doing the highly visible and vocal ecause that galloping knot- you until your pop-up timer ely, I keep my feathers num- an emergency." - Foghorn 6 HARUN BULJINA E-MAIL HARUNAT BULJINAH@UMICH.EDU t~o cfh, G~1? AN4EL~EIIA Sibg,,NEWJtW a l F