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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006 Colorado Institute of Technology Folds UT Suffers Another Computer Breach Maryland to Host Technology Summit UCLA Launches Online Journal on Ancient Egypt Copyright Law Update Favors Copyright Holders COLORADO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FOLDS Six years after it was launched in an effort to bolster the numbers of high-tech graduates, the Colorado Institute of Technology (CIT) has announced it will close its doors due to insufficient funding. CIT, which was once billed as the next Caltech or MIT, relied on private support, much of which dried up in the dot-com bust of 2000. The institute has provided courses and programs for more than 10,000 students, and J. Bruce Donaldson, the institute's interim president and chief executive officer, said he hopes some of CIT's programs will be adopted by other organizations. CIT provided support for an animal-tracking system at Colorado State University and for the Center for Computational Biology, a multicampus biosciences center at the University of Colorado. Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 April 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/04/2006042406n.htm UT SUFFERS ANOTHER COMPUTER BREACH Officials at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) said a hacker broke into a computer system at the university's McCombs School of Business and may have accessed sensitive data on nearly 200,000 students, faculty, and alumni. The breach is the second major incident for the university after a former UT student was found to have hacked into a university computer system in 2003. In that incident, the hacker accessed about 40,000 Social Security numbers. William Powers Jr., president of UT, said that the current incident, which may have begun as early as April 11, appears to have been limited to the business school. The university has set up a hotline for those whose information may have been compromised. Associated Press, 23 April 2006 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060424/ap_on_hi_te/ut_computer_breach MARYLAND TO HOST TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT Amid a number of reports warning that the United States is at risk of losing its global lead in technology fields, the University of Maryland will hold an event called Protecting Marylands Competitive Edge Summit. Attendees will include representatives of business, education, research, and technology interests. The event will focus on several key goals, including improving K-12 science and math education; drawing more engineers and scientists to academia; and fostering a stronger commitment to basic research, job creation, and workforce development. The White House recently pledged to spend $136 billion over the next 10 years as part of an initiative to improve education and strengthen research and development. C.D. Mote Jr., president of the University of Maryland, said that although more investment will help, the first step is "to get researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and state and local governments on the same page." Federal Computer Week, 21 April 2006 http://www.fcw.com/article94153-04-21-06-Web UCLA LAUNCHES ONLINE JOURNAL ON ANCIENT EGYPT UCLA is set to launch the first online, peer-reviewed encyclopedia of Egyptology. According to Willeke Wendrich, associate professor of Egyptian archaeology at UCLA and editor in chief of the encyclopedia, the project is largely a response to students' increased use of the Web, which is rife with inaccurate and misleading information about ancient Egypt. The project, which is initially funded with a $325,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, will provide some content for free, while some features will require a fee. Wendrich said the project must generate income and become self-sustaining. The project will be built on an existing platform at UCLA known as the eScholarship publishing program. The encyclopedia, in English and Arabic, will feature articles solicited from experts in the field. In addition to text-based resources, the project will include maps, photographs, hieroglyphs, and 3D models of sites in Egypt. Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 April 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/04/2006042405n.htm COPYRIGHT LAW UPDATE FAVORS COPYRIGHT HOLDERS Despite pressure from a number of quarters to introduce restrictions on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Congress appears to be headed the other direction. Drafts of the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 are circulating among lawmakers, and a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee said the bill will likely be introduced soon. The bill adds a number of new layers to copyright law, including increasing fines for certain copyright crimes; criminalizing attempted copyright violations, even if they fail; and allowing copyright owners to impound "records documenting the manufacture, sale, or receipt of items involved in" violations. Jason Schultz, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said of this last provision that the recording industry has long wanted the ability to obtain server logs that would indicate "every single person who's ever downloaded" certain files. Keith Kupferschmid, vice president for intellectual property and enforcement at the Software and Information Industry Association, welcomed the bill, saying that it gives government officials needed authority to prosecute intellectual property criminals. CNET, 23 April 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6064016.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 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] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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