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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006 Rice Press Reborn as Online Only Squabble over Cell Phones in School Goes to Court China Sends Internet Reporter to Prison Lawsuit Alleges Collusion in Chip Market RICE PRESS REBORN AS ONLINE ONLY Rice University will restart its press, which was closed in 1996, as an online-only operation, publishing peer-reviewed books and monographs. Faced with declining budgets, many libraries buy fewer books, leaving academic publishers unwilling to publish books unless they can justify the printing costs. Rice's model does away with printing, allowing the press to publish texts not published otherwise while considerably speeding up the publishing process. Because texts will be peer-reviewed, organizers hope the reborn Rice press will be as prestigious--and as valid for tenure or promotion--as a traditional press. The press will operate through Connexions, a site that offers course materials free of charge. Separately, Connexions will also begin offering print-on-demand custom textbooks, assembled from individual modules within Connexions. The textbooks are expected to cost significantly less than comparable offerings from traditional textbook publishers. Inside Higher Ed, 14 July 2006 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/14/rice SQUABBLE OVER CELL PHONES IN SCHOOL GOES TO COURT Parents of public school kids in New York City have filed a lawsuit to overturn a ban on cell phones in schools. The ban, which was originally put in place in 1988 and concerned primarily pagers, was not widely enforced until recently, when schools added X-ray machines to help keep schools safe. Under the ban, cell phones can be confiscated and only returned to parents, who must go to the school to pick them up. Parents objected, saying cell phones represent a safety issue for kids and that the chancellor of schools overstepped his authority in banning the devices. School officials said students use cell phones for cheating, making drug deals, taking photos in locker rooms, and other inappropriate activities. The parents hoping to overturn the ban are looking to a case from the early 1990s in which the courts ruled that the school system went beyond its authority in distributing condoms to students. The argument, which the court accepted, was that such activity is properly under the purview of parents, not the school. Opponents of the cell phone ban contend that having a cell phone is similarly the decision of parents rather than school administrators. New York Times, 13 July 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/nyregion/13cnd-cellphone.html CHINA SENDS INTERNET REPORTER TO PRISON Chinese courts have convicted another individual of using the Internet to distribute content deemed inappropriate and subversive. Li Yuanlong was accused of writing essays critical of unemployment and rural poverty and e-mailing them to Chinese-language news outlets based in the United States. Charges filed in February against Li said the essays "fabricated, distorted and exaggerated facts, incited subversion of the state, and [sought] to overthrow the socialist system." The court found Li guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison. Li's lawyer noted that although he believes the ruling was unjust, the sentence could have been much longer. Similar charges in other cases have resulted in prison terms of five and even ten years for those found guilty. CNET, 13 July 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6094022.html LAWSUIT ALLEGES COLLUSION IN CHIP MARKET Attorneys general in 34 states, led by California's Bill Lockyer, have filed a suit alleging that seven makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips conspired to artificially inflate prices between 1998 and 2002. The lawsuit contends that the companies named fixed prices, limited supplies, and rigged bids for the chips. Makers of consumer products that use DRAM chips, including most computer manufacturers, were forced to pay inflated prices and passed those extra costs on to consumers, according to the complaint. A federal investigation launched in 2002 into chipmakers' practices resulted in fines totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for the world's leading chipmakers. The current suit was filed in California because that is the home of many of the computer makers directly affected by the alleged scheme. ZDNet, 13 July 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6094140.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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