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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2004 FCC Exempts Higher Ed from CALEA Computer Problems Delay Student Loans Different Approaches to Copyright Education DVD Jon Goes After AirPort Express FCC EXEMPTS HIGHER ED FROM CALEA The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a preliminary ruling that exempts colleges and universities from costly projects to reengineer computer networks to comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). CALEA requires telecom companies to build their networks in such a way that federal officials can eavesdrop on phone conversations and e-mail exchanges with proper authority, and some have called for the FCC to rule that CALEA should also cover computer networks that carry Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service. The FCC will not make a final decision on CALEA until late this fall, but in the meantime it has issued a ruling that identifies certain entities that would be exempt from CALEA for the purposes of VoIP phone service. Aside from higher education, exempted entities include libraries, hotels, and coffee shops. Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 August 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/08/2004081301n.htm COMPUTER PROBLEMS DELAY STUDENT LOANS A new centralized computer system at Britain's Student Loans Company is being blamed for slow processing of loan applications that could leave thousands of students without loans at the beginning of the school year. With the new computer system, loan decisions are taking six to seven weeks, according to a spokesman for one local council, compared to about three weeks under the old system. Students who met a July 2 deadline for loan applications will reportedly be unaffected by the slowdown, but as many as 100,000 applications are expected still to come in. One education official said the problems resulted from "inadequate testing and rushed introduction of the new system." Officials are calling on the government to issue a statement to reassure students that their loans will be processed and to make interim funds available to students caught without loans. An executive from the Student Loans Company acknowledged that there had been "teething problems" but said applications from affected students would only be a week or two late. BBC, 13 August 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3557902.stm DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO COPYRIGHT EDUCATION Citing what it calls one-sided information about copyright presented by groups including the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to school students, the American Library Association (ALA) will release its own educational materials to schools. ALA officials said that copyright information given to schools from industry groups neglects to address such issues as fair use and that the bias of industry groups doesn't serve the best interests of school kids. A representative of the BSA said his group's materials are not biased and that they focus simply on right versus wrong rather than on covering the range of relevant issues. Darrell Luzzo, vice president of education for Junior Achievement Worldwide, which last year cosponsored a program with the MPAA on copyright education, said that if his organization were going to repeat the project, it "would want to talk more about fair use." Discussions with educators later convinced Luzzo that the program should have been more broadly based rather than focusing on just one side of the issue. Wired News, 13 August 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64543,00.html DVD JON GOES AFTER AIRPORT EXPRESS The Norwegian hacker known as DVD Jon has published a software key for Apple Computer's AirPort Express, a wireless device that allows users to transmit songs from iTunes on a computer to a stereo. Jon Johansen, now 20, found himself the subject of criminal prosecution as a 15-year-old when he published a key to the encryption for DVDs, allowing users to make copies--legitimate or otherwise--of encrypted DVDs. Ultimately, Johansen was acquitted of those charges. Johansen has been an outspoken critic of proprietary software and voiced his support on his Web site for a recent announcement from RealNetworks that they had developed an application to allow their content to be played on Apple's iPod music player. The software key that Johansen published this week for the AirPort Express is the third time this year he has defeated Apple's copy protections for music files. The new key, according to some experts, could allow development of a range of products from companies other than Apple that will work with the AirPort Express device. San Jose Mercury News, 12 August 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9385704.htm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ 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/ ***************************************************** 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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