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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2004 Court Says P2P Companies Not Liable for Copyright Piracy Browsing the Web as a Library Eolas Patents Rejected by Patent Office Candidates Invited to Virtual Town Hall Meeting DSL Outpaces Cable COURT SAYS P2P COMPANIES NOT LIABLE FOR COPYRIGHT PIRACY A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that frees companies that make file-sharing software from liability for the illegal activities of the users of that software. The record and movie industries had sought to have the makers of P2P services such as Grokster and Morpheus held responsible for illegal file sharing and to force them to redesign their software so that they could monitor network traffic for copyright violations. A lower court, and now the appeals court, rejected those arguments, saying that even if a majority of activity on file-trading networks is illegal, the potential for legitimate uses of the networks means that developers of the services cannot be held accountable for the way they are used. Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, said his group might pursue a further appeal, while attorneys for the maker of P2P service Kazaa, which is involved in a similar lawsuit, said they will ask plaintiffs to dismiss that case based on the appeals court's ruling. CNET, 19 August 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5316570.html BROWSING THE WEB AS A LIBRARY Marti Hearst, a professor at the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a prototype search program designed to turn Web searches into something that approximates browsing the stacks of a library. The Flamenco search tool uses descriptions of archived items--in Hearst's tests, 35,000 images from an art collection--to display items grouped by criteria such as artist, period, medium, and subject. Users searching for representations of flowers in the 18th century, for example, could see results grouped by decade or by variety of flower. Flamenco can show groups of results that include paintings and sculptures of irises, or paintings of irises and roses. Hearst said the tool allows users to "compare and contrast, discovering new categories and relationships." Bruce Horn of Ingenuity Software is working on a tool that would allow a similar type of browsing on a computer, helping users find relevant resources that might be distributed in many places around a hard drive. New York Times, 19 August 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/technology/circuits/19next.html EOLAS PATENTS REJECTED BY PATENT OFFICE The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated 10 patents held by the University of California and licensed to Eolas Technologies, confirming a preliminary ruling from the office in March. The patents cover technologies developed by Michael D. Doyle while working at the university; Doyle later started Eolas, which holds an exclusive license to the technology. The technology at issue, which allows Web browsers to automatically launch applications such as Java applets and software plug-ins, is at the heart of a patent-infringement case against Microsoft. A court had awarded the university and Eolas $520 million from Microsoft for using the technology without licensing it, but the decision from the Patent Office could invalidate that ruling. If the patents were upheld, Microsoft and other companies including Adobe and Macromedia would be forced to license the technology or redesign their products to work differently. A spokesperson from the Patent Office said the university will have one more opportunity to convince the office of the legitimacy of the patents. Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 August 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/08/2004082001n.htm CANDIDATES INVITED TO VIRTUAL TOWN HALL MEETING Presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry have been invited to participate in separate, online town hall meetings to discuss the nation's science programs. Organizers said that federal policies toward research and scientific projects are an important issue for the three million scientists, engineers, and doctors who would be eligible to participate in the meetings. Specifically, the issue of stem cell research has lately become the focus of disagreement between the two candidates, with Kerry promising to reverse Bush's ban on federal funding for stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001. A spokesperson for John Kerry said he would accept the invitation to participate in the virtual town halls; a spokesperson for Bush said he had not yet seen the invitation and so had no response at this time. USA Today, 20 August 2004 http://www.usatoday.com/ DSL OUTPACES CABLE The Leichtman Research Group (LRG) reported that during the past quarter, DSL services drew nearly 8 percent more new subscribers than cable companies. Since the introduction of broadband access, cable has consistently outpaced DSL for its number of subscribers, due to aggressive marketing and often faster connection speeds. Analysts at Forrester noted that as high-speed Internet access reaches greater levels of market penetration, consumers are increasingly focused on price, and monthly charges for DSL service are generally less than for cable. According to Forrester, "Today's and tomorrow's broadband adopters will lean more toward DSL." A spokesperson from Verizon Communications confirmed the trend, saying that for her company, "During the last two quarters of 2003 and the first two quarters of 2004, DSL grew faster than cable." TechNewsWorld, 19 August 2004 http://www.technewsworld.com/story/35957.html ***************************************************** 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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