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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2004 MPAA Campaigns for Tighter Control on Campus New iMac Released, Misses Back-to-School Rush Philadelphia Looking at City-Wide Wireless Access MPAA CAMPAIGNS FOR TIGHTER CONTROL ON CAMPUS Officials from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have begun making phone calls and sending e-mails to non-IT staff at colleges and universities as part of its ongoing efforts to curb illegal trading of movies on campus networks. The MPAA has contacted 79 schools, with plans to contact another 61 where, according to the group, online movie trading is common. James W. Spertus, the MPAA's vice president for antipiracy operations, said his organization is trying to shift the focus of antipiracy efforts away from technology solutions toward education. In the phone calls, MPAA officials typically ask administrators about existing policies and educational programs concerning movie piracy and offer advice or materials schools could use to teach students about appropriate use of technology. Administrators at some institutions said they were uncomfortable with the thought that the MPAA's campaign was intended to influence campus policy. Others were less concerned by the phone calls, including Juan Franco, vice president for student services at Utah State University. Franco said he did not feel pressured and that if the materials the MPAA sends him seem useful, he will share them with students. Chronicle of Higher Education, 31 August 2004 http://chronicle.com/free/2004/08/2004083103n.htm NEW IMAC RELEASED, MISSES BACK-TO-SCHOOL RUSH Apple Computer is set to release a new version of its popular iMac computer, though delays in production have kept the new machines off shelves during the seasonal back-to-school rush when many students buy new computers. Still, company officials said the lost sales would be minimal. Analysts agreed, saying that students are increasingly choosing laptops for college and that Apple's iBook and PowerBook models continue to be strong products for the education market. According to Charles Wolf of Needham & Company, the more important target was to have the new iMac available for the Christmas shopping season, a deadline they easily met. The new iMac, which will be in stores in mid-September, squeezes all of the parts of the computer behind a flat-screen monitor. The result is a minimal design, resting on a thin metal stand. Both the 17-inch and 20-inch models use the company's G5 processor, production of which caused the delays in getting the iMac to market. Continued shortages of G5 chips has also led to long delays for consumers buying Apple's dual-processor G5 desktop models. New York Times, 1 September 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/technology/01computer.html PHILADELPHIA LOOKING AT CITY-WIDE WIRELESS ACCESS City officials in Philadelphia are considering a plan to install a city-wide wireless network that would cover all 135 square miles of the city and would be available either free or at a very low cost to the public. Cities such as Chaska, Minn. (13 square miles), and Corpus Christi, Tex. (20 square miles), have implemented similar networks, though on a much smaller scale, and Cleveland has installed about 4,000 access points to provide coverage of part of the city. Lev Gonick, chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, likened the network to PBS and NPR, saying, "It should be a public resource." According to Dianah Neff, Philadelphia's chief information officer, the proposed network in her city would cost approximately $10 million to install and about $1.5 million to maintain annually. Neff said the proposed network, which would offer high-speed Internet access to poorer parts of town that currently have no such access, is "a technology whose time is here." San Jose Mercury News, 1 September 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9553298.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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