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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, JUNE 04, 2003 Appeals Court Rejects Verizon's Argument Piracy on the Slide Federal Do-Not-Call List Close to Launch Study Shows Risks to Broadband Use AND Law-School Course Devoted to Spam Royalty Deal Reached for Non-Commercial Webcasters APPEALS COURT REJECTS VERIZON'S ARGUMENT The U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected Verizon Communication's request for a stay and ordered the company to reveal the identities of two of its subscribers to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Verizon has repeatedly refused to disclose the users' identities, arguing that the subpoena provision of Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the RIAA invoked to obtain the two identities, is unconstitutional and does not compel it to release that information. A U.S. District Court ruled in January that Verizon must turn over the names. Verizon had been seeking a stay of the order until all of its appeals had been settled. U.S. District Judge John Bates granted Verizon a temporary stay, pending a decision from the Court of Appeals. Verizon and the RIAA expect the case to wind up in the Supreme Court. Internet News, 4 June 2003 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2217371 PIRACY ON THE SLIDE Following two consecutive years of increases in software piracy, 2002 saw a decrease in such activity, according to a new study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The estimated piracy rate for business software--the only software considered by the study--dropped to 39 percent from 40 percent in 2001. Robert Holleyman of the BSA said that the most common form of piracy happens when a company legally buys a single copy of an application but installs it on several computers. Holleyman attributed the decline in part to educational efforts of his organization. Rob Enderle of Forrester Research noted that as software is increasingly packaged with technical support and upgrades, the value of a pirated copy goes down, which may also have led to the decline. Washington Post, 3 June 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6236-2003Jun3.html FEDERAL DO-NOT-CALL LIST CLOSE TO LAUNCH Officials from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now say that the federal do-not-call registry will be available on or before July 1, almost two months earlier than the agency had previously predicted. Eileen Harrington of the FTC said, "We initially thought things would take longer ... but now we're really confident we can get the entire system up quickly." Marketing organizations including the Direct Marketing Association fought the registry in court and in Congress, but ultimately the registry was allowed to proceed. Consumers will be able to add their names to the registry, and, beginning in September, marketers will not be allowed to call anyone whose name appears on the list. Those who violate the statute face fines of up to $11,000 per violation. Wall Street Journal, 4 June 2003 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105467702262503100,00.html STUDY SHOWS RISKS TO BROADBAND USE A new study from the National Cyber Security Alliance indicates a gap between broadband users' perceptions of how secure their systems are and the real level of security. According to the study of 120 broadband users, 77 and 86 percent consider their systems safe from hackers and online threats, respectively. More than 40 percent, however, do not have a firewall. A majority of the users in the study have antivirus software installed on their systems, but most do not regularly update that software, leaving them vulnerable to new viruses. Keith Nahigian, spokesman for the alliance and a consultant to the Office of Homeland Security, noted that broadband users are at significantly higher risk for security problems than dial-up users because of the speed of broadband connections and the fact that they typically are always on. New York Times, 4 June 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/04/technology/04NET.html AND ***************************************************** LAW-SCHOOL COURSE DEVOTED TO SPAM Associate Professor David Sorkin of John Marshall Law School in Chicago will begin offering a seminar this summer devoted to the study of spam. Sorkin was one of the first to offer a class on Internet law in 1995. The new course covers the ins and outs of spam and e-mail marketing, with particular focus existing and proposed legislation. Sorkin cautions against legislation specifically crafted to deal with spam, arguing that traditional laws have broad applicability to Internet issues. Legislation narrowly designed to deal with Internet issues has a strong potential to make the problem worse, according to Sorkin. Sorkin believes his course to be the first of its kind. CNET, 2 June 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-1012404.html ROYALTY DEAL REACHED FOR NON-COMMERCIAL WEBCASTERS The recording industry and non-commercial Webcasters have reached an agreement on royalty rates that will avoid a potentially lengthy and expensive arbitration process and will allow most stations to continue Webcasts. Non-commercial stations, including many college radio stations, had been involved in a lengthy dispute over the royalty rates set by the Librarian of Congress, rates the stations said were too high for non-commercial operations. Under the deal, non-commercial Webcasters can choose to pay 0.0762 cents per song per listener or 0.0117 cents per listener hour. The deal is retroactive to 1998, the year in which Congress mandated that Webcasters must pay royalties to artists and music labels. Internet News, 3 June 2003 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2216941 ***************************************************** 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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