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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JULY 07, 2006 Pentagon Acknowledges Monitoring Student E-Mail Legal Downloads a Dud on Campus Microsoft Agrees to Work with OpenDocument PENTAGON ACKNOWLEDGES MONITORING STUDENT E-MAIL Surveillance reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the Department of Defense monitored student e-mail as part of its efforts to identify and track potential terrorist suspects. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network filed requests for the information, and the reports released so far cover e-mail surveillance at the State University of New York at Albany, Southern Connecticut State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and William Paterson University of New Jersey. Student e-mail was monitored when it dealt with protests against the war in Iraq or against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" program concerning gay and lesbian members of the armed forces. Instances of monitoring were evidently prompted by reports of suspicious behavior, but a Pentagon spokesperson would not say who submitted the reports that led to the monitoring described in the surveillance reports. Kermit Hall, president of SUNY-Albany, said his institution is investigating the nature of the monitoring and how it was conducted and would decide later how to proceed. Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 July 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/07/2006070601n.htm LEGAL DOWNLOADS A DUD ON CAMPUS Despite the added cost to institutions, providing free music download service to students offers several advantages, including increased control over bandwidth usage and presumably lowered exposure to copyright problems. Over the past few years, more than 120 colleges and universities have provided free online music from services such as Rhapsody, Ruckus, Cdigix, and the new Napster. Students vote with their computers, however, and majorities of students eschew legal services and continue to patronize P2P file-swapping services. Many cite the fact that music available through the institution does not work with their portable devices, usually Apple's iPod. Moreover, songs are typically "loaned" to students, who cannot keep them after they graduate or leave the institution. Fees also often apply if students want to copy songs to portable players or to CDs. The Recording Industry Association of America argues that offering legal services does in fact discourage many students from illegally trading files, but many institutions that offered pilot programs of free music services have discontinued those programs. Others are questioning whether the investment is worth continuing, given the declining numbers of students who use the services. Wall Street Journal, 6 July 2006 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115214899486099107.html MICROSOFT AGREES TO WORK WITH OPENDOCUMENT Reversing earlier statements that it would not support translation of its documents into the OpenDocument format, Microsoft has said it will sponsor the development of software that does just that. Microsoft's Open Office XML format and the OpenDocument format have been vying for the top spot in the emerging area of XML-based formats that allow interoperability of documents and platforms. A number of governments, including those of Massachusetts and Belgium, have committed to using the OpenDocument format, and it was pressure from those governments that persuaded Microsoft to allow translation of its Office files into the competing format, according to Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability and standards. The software, known as Open XML Translator, will be developed by Clever Age, a French company, with support from Microsoft. Microsoft said it hopes to have a plug-in for Word by the end of this year and similar tools for Excel and PowerPoint next year. ZDNet, 6 July 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6090912.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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