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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2002 Australian Court to Hear New Jersey Case against Dow Jones Music Piracy Raid in New York MPAA Sues eBay Users AND New Scholarships from the CIA Stanford to Move Ahead with Stem Cell Research Study Says Filters Block Wanted Sites AUSTRALIAN COURT TO HEAR NEW JERSEY CASE AGAINST DOW JONES The High Court of Australia ruled December 10 that it has the authority to hear a defamation case prompted by an Internet version of a Barron's magazine article published by Dow Jones on its U.S. Web site. The landmark ruling is being watched because it could set a precedent for other cases. Dow Jones had argued that the case should be heard in the United States because the company's Web servers are located in New Jersey. Joseph Gutnick filed the case in his home state of Victoria, Australia, where some readers saw the story. The ruling defined where Internet publication takes place based on where readers downloaded the story and on the plaintiff's home location. Reuters, 9 December 2002 http://news.com.com/2100-1023-976630.html MUSIC PIRACY RAID IN NEW YORK A raid conducted in New York City by the Recording Industry Association of America Inc. (RIAA) and the U.S. Secret Service reportedly netted the largest quantity of equipment used in music piracy ever in the United States. Seized in the raid were 35,000 recordable CDs, 10,000 DVDs, and hundreds of machines for copying disks. A statement from the RIAA and the Secret Service said the operation supplied pirated disks to retail outlets in Manhattan and was capable of producing at least six million disks per year, potentially causing $90 million in damage to the recording industry annually. IDG, 11 December 2002 http://www.idg.net/ic_988876_1794_9-10000.html MPAA SUES EBAY USERS The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed suits against users of eBay in eight states for selling illegally copied movies over the online auction service. According to the MPAA, the nine defendants in the suits are responsible for selling approximately 1,000 pirated DVD movies over the past few months. Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA, said that illegally copied versions of DVDs are often "of a much lower quality" than legitimate copies, meaning that consumers who buy the pirated movies are frequently disappointed. He cautioned buyers to be wary of movies for sale at prices that seem too low and of DVDs of movies not yet released in theaters. NewsFactor Network, 11 December 2002 http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20217.html AND ***************************************************** NEW SCHOLARSHIPS FROM THE CIA Under authorization from Congress, the Central Intelligence Agency will create science and technology scholarships for graduate students, who will have to obtain security clearances of "secret" or above to take advantage of them. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 (HR 4628) became law in November. Recipients of the scholarships would have to be employed by an intelligence-related agency or meet eligibility requirements to obtain employment in such agencies upon graduation. The law does not mandate commitment to such employment by scholarship recipients, although the program's goal is to foster disciplines of use to intelligence agencies, and a related Senate report implies a service obligation. Budget information on the program is not available, as parts of the law are classified. Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 December 2002 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/12/2002121002n.htm STANFORD TO MOVE AHEAD WITH STEM CELL RESEARCH Stanford University medical professor Irving Weissman said that the school intends to experiment with cell nuclear transfer technology. Weissman said that the goal is to advance science and denied that the project involves cloning embryos. The researchers plan to take DNA from diseased adult human cells, transfer the DNA into eggs, then grow the eggs for a few days to produce stem cells. Other researchers dismiss this distinction, claiming that this type of nuclear transfer creates an exact genetic replica of the adult cell donor. The stem cell work will take place under the auspices of the new Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, of which Weissman is the director. The university has said it plans to share resulting stem cell lines with other researchers. Wired News, 10 December 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,56802,00.html STUDY SAYS FILTERS BLOCK WANTED SITES According to a new study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, antipornography filters required by law for computers in schools and libraries are preventing teenagers from accessing useful health-related sites. The study evaluated the effectiveness of Internet software filtering settings and determined that less is more. While most institutions use a more restrictive setting, a less restrictive setting enables access to harmless or useful sites while offering similar protection against pornography. In the contentious climate over censorship versus the right to privacy on the Internet, the study, to be published by The Journal of the American Medical Association, is perceived as neutral. New York Times, 11 December 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/technology/11FILT.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html 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] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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