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Passerbys aid in
stopping blazes
After seeing several leaves catch
fire Friday morning, a staff mem-
ber at Wolverine Towers on State
Street grabbed a fire extinguisher
to douse the blaze. According to
Department of Public Safety
reports, the fire had started in or
around a dumpster near the build-
ing. The Ann Arbor Fire Depart-
ment was called to the scene to
verify that no property had been
damaged.
Another fire occurring in a trash-
can near the West Hall Engineering
Arch was extinguished by a passer-
by Thursday evening. DPS reports
did not state the cause of the fire.
Person making
deliveries arrested
in elevator fondling
DPS arrested a suspect Friday for
4th degree criminal sexual conduct.
The person is accused of fondling a
University Hospital staff member in
one of the building's elevators.
According to police reporters, the
suspect had been delivering items
to the hospital for work.
'M' flag missing
from Union top
A caller reported Wednesday
morning that the University "M"
flag that flies above the Michigan
Union had been stolen sometime
between April 20 and April 21. The
flag was valued at $400. DPS has
no suspects.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Recording industry targets college students
By Victoria Edwards
Daily News gditsr
The recording industry has
started to targeting college stu-
dents in an effort to discourage
peer-to-peer file sharing of copy-
righted music.
So far, the Record Industry
Association of America has sued
four individuals - all of whom
were college students who hosted
sites that allowed users to down-
load copyrighted material.
There was no prior warning
given to any of the students before
they were each sued for up to
$150,000 per file, RIAA Deputy
Director of Communications
Amanda Collins said.
"These lawsuits were intended
to send a message that this is ille-
gal. There are real consequences
when you ensue in these activities.
You have to realize that you
shouldn't expect warnings - there
were no warnings given to those
operators," Collins said.
University Attorney Jack
Bernard said that before, the
RIAA had only targeted large
services like Napster.
Bernard said the difficulty of
tracking users on peer to peer
services like Kazaa have made it
difficult for them to file suit
against newer services, causing
them to go after individuals.
Despite drastic action taken in
the form of these lawsuits some
students still continue to illegally
download copyrighted material.
Michigan State junior Phil Hong
said he started a website where
people can illegally download
copyrighted Korean music.
"I've never gotten in trouble,
never gotten any warnings. I see it
in this way; in America it is hard to
get Korean music (at stores). So I
do it so people can listen to Kore-
an music," Hong said.
Hong said that hearing about the
lawsuits does not change his activ-
ity on his website. He said the
chances of getting caught are still
very slim and he does not see it as
a threat.
The opinion that these lawsuits
still do not directly affect students
was echoed by Engineering junior
Michael Vitek who also manages
his own music site. He said getting
caught is still not the norm.
"I've heard talk of people getting
in trouble. I'm sure it would deter
some people. But while it's just a
threat its not as much of a deter-
rent," Vitek said.
"It's not like you see kids in the
dorm getting dragged away for
copyright infringement. If people
saw that then yeah, it would make a
difference, but there are not
enough people exposed to it," he
added.
Still, Bernard said itsis not the
penalties that he hopes will deter
students from illegally download-
ing material, but the University's
educational services on the correct
use of its resources.
"We have educational campaigns
and work with students in resi-
dence halls as well as having sym-
posiums about these issues,"
Bernard said.
"We also try to educate when we
respond to students, when we inter-
act with students who have been
accused," he added.
He also said he finds it very
unfortunate that the RIAA felt it
had to go to the extreme of filing
ELISE BERGMAN/Daily
Recent Music School graduate Mike Gabelman downloads music files
illegally and burns them onto CDs.
lawsuits against college students.
"Those of us who think about
these issues are sorry it came to
this. Colleges and universities are
doing quite a bit to respond to
copyright infringements. The Digi-
tal Millennium Copyright Act pro-
vides protections for Internet
service providers," Bernard said.
He added that if somebody has a
complaint about a University stu-
dent downloading their copyrighted
material, they should use the
process outlined by the act.
Bernard said the copyright hold-
er should make a complaint to a
compliance officer at the Universi-
ty, who will forward it to the user
advocates office.
The office will then send-a mes-
sage to the person distributing the
copyrighted material, who can
decide to remove it.
If the user insists he has a right
to distribute the material, then the
two parties can settle the issue
through legal means.
He added that the University has
not created new policies because
of these lawsuits, but has contin-
ued to enforce its old policies and
laws.
"I'm against the lawsuits. If you
are a musician you should do it for
the love of music. I understand you
need money but no artist goes poor
because someone downloads their
stuff," Vitek said.
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