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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2003 Cable Company Opposes RIAA Subpoenas Congress Exempts Its E-Mail from Spam Controls China Cooperates with EU to Launch Satellite Network Planned to Link China and Russia ALSO************************************************** Elsevier Plans to Close Three Portals Microsoft Agrees to Pay Patent Infringement Penalty DoD Selects Companies to Supply Intelligence Products CABLE COMPANY OPPOSES RIAA SUBPOENAS Cable company Charter Communications filed a motion in a federal appeals court to block the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from obtaining names of Charter customers who allegedly shared copyrighted music over the Internet. The company cited a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which ruled that the RIAA cannot force Internet service providers to identify music downloaders because the subpoena power granted in the 1998 copyright law did not anticipate and does not apply to file-sharing services. That decision overturned a lower court's decision to enforce copyright subpoenas. In response to earlier court decisions supporting the subpoenas, Charter supplied the names of about 200 of its customers. The most recent ruling is not expected to affect the civil lawsuits already filed by the RIAA or the financial settlements reached with people who agreed to pay penalties for sharing copyrighted music over the Internet. USA Today, 24 December 2003 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-12-24-charter-riaa_x.htm CONGRESS EXEMPTS ITS E-MAIL FROM SPAM CONTROLS Congressional members send out bulk e-mail aimed at attracting voluntary subscribers to their e-mail lists. These messages are not subject to House rules that impose a 90-day blackout before an election for taxpayer-supported Congressional mass communications (the franking privilege) because the House Administration Committee voted in September to allow e-mail messages to subscribers to be sent in the blackout period while maintaining the ban on free postal mail from House members to voters. Before the change, e-mail was subject to the same rules as regular postal mail. Critics call the messages spam, defined as unsolicited e-mail in the recently passed anti-spam legislation. They also point out that the policy change could unfairly benefit incumbents because elected officials can use government resources right up to an election to communicate with voters, creating a new loophole in the franking privilege. New York Times, 28 December 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/politics/28EMAI.html CHINA COOPERATES WITH EU TO LAUNCH SATELLITE China has announced the upcoming launch of a research satellite in cooperation with the European Space Agency. The satellite's mission is to study the Earth's magnetic fields. According to the National Space Administration of China, the satellite will launch aboard a Chinese-made Long March 2C-SM rocket. A second satellite, part of a pair called "Double Star," will launch in 2004. The project is the first joint endeavor between China and the European Space Agency, which co-developed the instruments to be used in the research. Los Angeles Times, 28 December 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-chinsat28dec28,1,6044335.story NETWORK PLANNED TO LINK CHINA AND RUSSIA China and Russia plan to establish the first direct computer link across their shared border by extending a high-speed computer network that already allows scientists in the United States and Russia to collaborate directly on a network separate from the public Internet. The extended network connects Chicago with Amsterdam, Moscow, Siberia, Beijing, and Hong Kong. The National Science Foundation gave $2.8 million to the project, and Russia and China invested similar amounts. eWeek, 26 December 2003 http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1423040,00.asp Also ************************************ ELSEVIER PLANS TO CLOSE THREE PORTALS According to the in-house employee newsletter Elsevier Today, Elsevier has decided to close three end-user portals because the benefits do not justify the high investments required. The affected portals are BioMedNet, ChemWeb, and ElsevierEngineering.com. Membership in the portals was free, although users were required to register and access to full-text items required pay-per-view retrieval through a connection to ScienceDirect. Some of the portals' current activities will reportedly move to the main Elsevier.com site. Elsevier has promised to meet subscription commitments to users regardless of the closures. Information Today, 29 December 2003 http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb031229-1.shtml MICROSOFT AGREES TO PAY PATENT INFRINGEMENT PENALTY Rather than appealing a November jury award to SPX Corporation's Imagexpo subsidiary, Microsoft has agreed to pay $60 milliion for infringing an Imagexpo technology patent with the Whiteboard feature of its NetMeeting conferencing software. Microsoft denied patent infringement in defending against the lawsuit. As part of the settlement, Microsoft has licensed the Imagexpo technology. CNET, 26 December 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-5133588.html DOD SELECTS COMPANIES TO SUPPLY INTELLIGENCE PRODUCTS The Defense Intelligence Agency selected seven companies to participate in the Defense Intelligence Information Systems Integration and Engineering Support Services Contract 3. DIESCON 3 includes database management; hardware; software and applications support; systems architecture and operation services; systems and facilities management support; systems and network engineering services; teleconferencing support; training; and documentation and video production. The seven companies are BAE Systems, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Computer Sciences, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SRA International, and Titan. Federal Computer Week, 24 December 2003 http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/1222/web-dia-12-24-03.asp ***************************************************** 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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