Russian school standoff ends with over 300 dead

A hostage situation at a Russian school ended on Friday, September 5 with over 300 people dead, including over 150 children. The attackers, believed to have been Chechen separatists, stormed the school on September 3, taking many inside hostage and planting explosives throughout the school. Some of these explosives in the gymnasium went off, killing scores of people inside. More deaths were attributed to gun fighting between the attackers and Russian military forces. Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to step up the fight against Chechen rebels, who have orchestrated several attacks against Russia in recent years.

Sudanese rebel leader calls for unification

John Garang, leader of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, has called for a unified national government in Sudan, claiming it would be the only way to end violence there that has been going on for years. Garang's remarks come as the United Nations considers a second resolution directing the Sudanese government to put an end to militia attacks on minority groups in the Darfur region, where tens of thousands have been killed.

U.S. calls for end to Iranian uranium enrichment programs

The United States is calling for Iran to put an end to plans to start a uranium enrichment program, even as Iran has offered to suspend such programs. The proposed compromise would have Iran stop its enrichment program as long as European nations agree to take some of the pressure off Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. has insisted that Iran is seeking to create nuclear warheads, while Iran claims it is only working on nuclear power generation.

U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 1000

The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq has now topped 1000, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday, September 8. Regarded by many political observers as a symbolic number, the Pentagon's announcement prompted responses from both the White House and from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Kerry said that "Today marks a tragic milestone in the war in Iraq," while a spokesman for President Bush stated that "we remember, honor and mourn the loss of all those that made the ultimate sacrifice defending freedom."

In the three years since the September 11 attacks, national "homeland" security has taken on a new importance in our government. Private airline screeners have been replaced with government employees, federal marshals patrol our planes, and laws such as the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act purport to shut down the operation of terrorist groups inside America.

Our military was involved in two campaigns aimed (partially, at least) at making the United States of America a safer nation. But security has its price, and this is often paid for with our civil liberties.

The USA PATRIOT Act, or "Patriot Act" for short, was the first blow. Passed in the name of securing America against future attacks, the Act drastically altered the privacy and liberty of American citizens. Much has been written about the Patriot Act, and its negative effect on civil liberties.

Today, more legislation is under consideration that would further erode Americans' civil liberties. Congress is considering a law that would require a national identification card and "screening points" inside the country.

A national identification card was one of the recommendations put out by the 9/11 Commission as a way to prevent future attacks. Congressman Ron Paul (R, TX) warns that Congress is trying "to be seen doing something" as a result of the report.

Critics of the plan compare the idea to similar policies in the former Soviet Union, where citizens were frequently stopped and their identification demanded of them, no matter what they were doing. Such a comparison, while evoking feelings of resentment, as the USSR was viewed as 'evil' in all respects, is not without merit.

Already, people traveling by plane, and in some cities, by train, are being required by authorities to present identification. Nearly all of these people are innocent, and those may turn out not to be are still entitled to that presumption.

And what if you forget your ID card? At the very least, you would be prevented from traveling any further, and it is quite possible that you would be arrested. After all, if the police will not let you continue forward, why should they let you go back to your home?

A national ID card would have very little effect on our actual security, just as the Patriot Act has had little effect. There has yet to be any direct evidence that any provisions of the act have helped to foil another attack. What is clear is that the law now requires disclosure of otherwise private information—such as library records and secret wiretaps—without any oversight, and while 'gagging' the organization supplying the information.

The War on Terror is framed by our government as a protection of our freedom and our liberty. But the biggest threat to these comes not from a terrorist group, but from the very government claiming to be protecting us.
There is, practically speaking, a trade-off between security and liberty, despite what Ben Franklin once said. There needs to be compromise somewhere in the middle, however; societies of total liberty or of total security are equally problematic.

Do not stand by and let this "home of the free" turn into a land of total government control.

Stevens will finally be getting its garage, despite the months of uncertainty the structure has faced. At their June 7 meeting, the Hoboken Zoning Board gave its approval in a 5-2 vote. The vote grants the school the variances it needs to begin construction of the Babbio Center parking garage.

The final plan for the garage calls for approximately 715 parking spaces, an increase from the former Navy lot’s125 parking spaces. There will be a police substation at ground level facing Fifth Street and the waterfront, and parking will be available for Hoboken citizens attending events at the Little League field in Stevens Park or the soccer field at Sinatra Park.

Stevens' win was not without its price. The garage proposal was opposed by Fund for a Better Waterfront, resulting in eight hearings being held over the variances. Hank Dobbelaar, Vice President for Facilities/Support Services, could not provide an exact dollar amount for the cost of these hearings, but he did say that "an excessive amount of money was spent" to obtain approval for the garage.

Should Fund for a Better Waterfront, or any other citizen or group, wish to challenge the decision, the court system is the only remaining avenue. While Dobbelaar does not anticipate an appeal of the decision, it remains a possibility until October 3.

Students should not expect the garage to be finished soon. Construction has not yet begun on the garage, and when it does, will take approximately twelve months.

The Lawrence T. Babbio Center for Technology Management, the other construction taking place on the site, will likely be done sooner. Dobbelaar estimates that the Babbio Center will be opening sometime in spring of next year. Construction of the Babbio Center was delayed in its early stages over concerns about the blasting taking place.

After orbiting the sun for over three years in order to gather clues to the origin of the solar system, NASA's Genesis space capsule crashed to Earth after a parachute malfunction. A parachute was supposed to deploy from the refrigerator-sized capsule, while helicopters operated by Hollywood stunt pilots would hook the parachute and float the capsule to the ground.

The parachute never deployed, sending the centerpiece of three years and $260 million worth of work hurtling toward the Earth. The capsule crashed in the western Utah desert at the Dugway Proving Ground.
The capsule held billions of highly charged atoms collected from the solar wind on fragile discs. Scientists had hoped to study the particles for the next five years to gain an idea as to how the sun and surrounding planets in the solar system had formed. There is serious doubt as to whether the samples survived the crash.

Officials at NASA believed that there was a very good chance that the disks would shatter even if the unit had touched the ground aided by parachutes as planned. NASA rescue teams are being held at bay by the fear of an explosion at the site, due to the parachute that could deploy at any point. The Genesis mission was launched in 2001 and marked the first time that samples would be collected and returned to Earth from points farther than the moon.

Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory said that the five disks holding the sample particles were of different thickness, which may help scientists sort through the rubble and save some of the samples that have been acquired over the past three years.

NASA will attempt another such capsule recovery in 2006, when the Stardust probe returns to Earth. Stardust's mission was to collect dust samples from the trail of a comet.

This article was co-written with John Frega

Sudan "not fully" meeting obligations to disarm militia

Kofi Annan, the U.N. Secretary General, has accused Sudan of not meeting its obligations to disarm militias operating in several of its cities. Sudan agreed in July to make an effort to put an end to the militias and to attacks on civilians. The Sudanese government agreed to the effort as part of a U.N. Security Council resolution. Several Arab militias have been involved in the killing of Sudanese civilians and refugees.

Iran planning to commence uranium enrichment program

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran is taking steps toward instituting a uranium enrichment program. The IAEA report indicates that Iran is looking to obtain 40 tons of uranium, which would then be processed and enriched. Iran insists it is only working on a nuclear power program, while the U.S. has accused Iran of running a nuclear weapons program.

Syria accused of complicity in suicide bombings

Israel alleges that Syria is involved in the most recent suicide bombings in Israel. The militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the two attacks, which killed 16 people. The Israeli leadership believes that Hamas has been operating out of the Syrian capitol of Damascus, and indicated that operating from Syria would not prevent retaliation. In response to the attack, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and destroyed the home of the one of the bombers.

Iraqi interim parliament holds first meeting

The new interim government in Iraq met for the first time on Wednesday, September 1. Members of the Parliament were sworn in until the first general election in January. The meeting was not without problems, however, as mortar shots were fired in what is believed to have been an assassination attempt on prominent Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi. Chalabi emerged unharmed, but says that several of his bodyguards were injured or killed.

Rebel group seizes Russian school, takes hostages

A rebel group seized control of a Russian school and took nearly 400 children hostage on Wednesday, September 1. The Russian government believes the situation is the work of Chechen rebels, though the major Chechen separatist group has denied responsibility. The attackers are demanding the release of several prisoners and the withdrawal of Russians forced from Chechnya. The rebel group has threatened to kill hostages if any attackers are killed or injured.

For once, being a student can actually make something less expensive. New Jersey Transit, New Jersey's main provider of public transportation, is offering free rides on its trains, buses, and light rail lines between September 8 and September 15 to college students with their student ID card.

The free trips are part of a statewide effort to make college students aware of public transportation options in New Jersey. NJT Executive Director George Warrington said that "[t]he week of free travel gives students the opportunity to experience how easy it is to use NJ TRANSIT to reach thousands of destinations throughout the State."

New Jersey Transit is also working with several colleges in New Jersey to provide discounts to students on monthly passes. Stevens is not yet a participant, though New Jersey Transit hopes to open the program to the rest of New Jersey's colleges next year.

The offer should be especially appealing to Stevens students, as Hoboken is a major transportation hub for the state, with plenty of options available. The rail lines operating from Hoboken include the Main/Bergen County line, the Morris & Essex line, the North Jersey Coast line, the Pascack Valley line, and the Montclair/Boonton line. Transfer is also available from these lines to the Northeast Corridor line and the Raritan Valley line.

New Jersey Transit's bus routes, including the #126 bus to and from New York City, are also free during this period. Travel on the Hudson-Bergen light rail, which runs through Jersey City into Bayonne, is also included.

For New Jersey Transit, offering a week of free travel to students is an investment for the future. "Our hope is that once they become a part of the workforce, students will already know the benefits of using public transportation for their daily commute," says Warrington.

More information can be found on New Jersey Transit's website, http://www.njtransit.com/ or from a customer service representative at the Hoboken rail terminal.

A new semester is underway, and along with it comes the requisite mocking of jhaydu. From "kiddie pool shark" to the jhaydu schedule, things are off to an excellent start on that front.

As I probably mentioned before, I spend a large portion of my summer working. While the job did pay, and it's not like I had anything else to do with myself, the work I was doing (when there was work to do) was decidedly boring and tedious. Sure, I like typing, and I do it well enough, but spending the better part of an eight-hour day sitting at a computer transcribing gets to you after a while. It's not so much the typing that bothers me, it's listening to the same repetitive-sounding revocation opinions time and time again.

And then the summer was over. In under 24 hours I was transplanted from working in Trenton to being drenched in the most torrential downpour I've ever seen back in Hoboken. I was looking forward to the change of scenery, and to getting some work done with the free time I envisioned I would have during the week.

The original plan was simple: get back to Hoboken on Sunday, put out a special edition of The Stute by Tuesday night, and relax from Wednesday until Sunday. This delusion was quickly shattered, however, as the sheer amount of legwork required to assemble the content for the issue turned out to be far more than I had imagined. After a couple of 5 A.M. nights, the paper finally gone done sometime Thursday morning, and in my infinite wisdom, decided the best way to cap off working on the paper was to go home and fix a problem with my mom's new laptop (I had promised to do that at some point, but the choice of timing was more spontaneous). So the early morning saw me sprinting from my room to the Hoboken train station to catch a train as part of an elaborate system of transfers that would place me less than a half-mile from my house. After spending five minutes wrestling with the ticket machine at the station (and being short on cash with which to purchase a ticket aboard the train), I watched my plans fall apart as the train left Hoboken, sans me.

And so I fell back to plan B, which was to get home and figure out the rest later. So I took the PATH to Newark and got a later train to Hamilton. Naturally, this later train arrived after the departure of the bus I needed to take to get home, so I walked the three miles or so from the train station to my house. Upon arriving, I fired up the laptop and quickly found the source of the problem — this laptop has a small switch on the side that can enable or disable wireless connectivity. At some point, this switch had been moved to the 'off' position. The switch was restored to the desired position, and then it was back to the train station (I got a ride this time, as I was not about to walk back less than ten minutes after I'd just walked home).

At this point, I still had the illusion that I would have some relaxing free time before classes started. This was quickly eliminated almost immediately upon my return to Hoboken, as I realized that the freshman orientation events needed to be covered for the paper, and there still weren't enough staff members around to make it easy. That evening, I called a quick meeting for those who were around to assign coverage, taking on my fair share of the events, many of which were happening that evening (as was the arrival of the special orientation issue). Naturally, everything for that night fell to me, including distribution. As I hadn't slept in over 30 hours that point, and had already done quite a bit of walking, I was in no condition to handle all of that. After a brief nap, I awoke (I think) to handle distribution, only to find that the paper had not yet arrived. At that point I decided to blow off everything for the rest of the night and get some much-needed sleep.

By the time I woke up, it was Friday afternoon, and so the day was wasted for an imagined trip to the shore during the week. Instead, I finally got to unpacking the remainder of my stuff, and was then swept off to Home Depot and Applebees with jmikola. The need for organizing stuff for The Stute necessitated my skipping a work day (and abandoning any plans) on Saturday. Saturday night saw another road trip, this time with Krup, jerm, and Sneaky Gene. What was originally planned to be a mere trip to Krup's house to swap cars ended up with us at a bar, downing Long Island iced teas and Irish car bombs. Sunday passed without any noteworthy event, mostly cleaning and organizing from the mess I'd made over the past week.

And then there were classes. There's no need for any detail, except to say that every class I have this semester appears to be a complete waste of time.

My current reading material is the very strange and very fucked-up literary work that is The Illuminatus Trilogy (note the cheap plug for my reading list project there). Progress on the book thus far has been slow, since it's hard to follow and borders on frustrating.

That's about all that's worth mentioning now, and as always, another update will occur whenever I feel like it. This one is basically just a cover to use the phrases 'kiddie pool shark' and 'interlibrary loan shark' (both mpowers1 creations) and the picture of jerm's illustration for the former.

Next week, the Republican National Convention is being held at New York's Madison Square Garden. The event is taking place under some of the highest security in New York since after the 9/11 attacks, and this may cause some difficulties for students who wish to explore New York.

A several-block wide area around Madison Square Garden will be under the strictest security. This area also includes the 33rd Street PATH station, and students wishing to travel to New York by train may find it easier to get off at a different station.

New Stevens students frequently like to explore New York as soon as they can. With the convention, however, students might want to reconsider those plans. Kenneth Nilsen, Dean of Student Life, recommends putting off any trip until the following week. "If you've never been to New York City, and the time you want to see it is next week, I would wait until after the convention."

Stevens has not issued any official announcement or recommendation to students, but Nilsen said that, "we [Stevens] are encouraging people just to be careful."

Many others are also planning to avoid the area during the convention. Thousands of people with jobs in Manhattan have been offered time off or are taking vacation time during the convention. Even tour groups will be scaled back.

"I'm not going on any tours," said Kevingerarrd Cannon, tour guide for A Friend in New York, while on a walking tour of Hoboken with incoming freshmen. He continued, "You actually have to take out extra insurance to take a group in ... and I wouldn't do it."

In spite of the inconveniencies caused by the convention's security, Stevens has two students participating in the convention as part of the Washington Centers program. The convention is also an opportunity for protest-minded students to get involved. "For anyone who wants to know what demonstrations or public disobedience is about, it's in our backyard," said Nilsen.

This year, 44 new freshmen came to Stevens for the sports program pre-orientation. The students had three days full of events, including trips, guest speakers, and fitness seminars.

Students arrived on Sunday and promptly left campus for the Big Apple. They toured the famous Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, and followed by watching the New York Yankees take on the Anaheim Angels.

Later that night, Chris Carlin, weekend host and Assistant Program Director for sports radio station WFAN, talked with the group. The topics of conversation ranged from the Olympics to predictions for the upcoming football season. When the discussion turned toward college sports, Carlin shared his liking for Division III schools, having come from a Division III school himself, he seemed to identify with Stevens.

"In Division III all the teams are in the same boat," explained Carlin. He went on, "[Division III] is more about the love of the game" than professional or Division I sports.

Monday morning bought the freshmen a fitness seminar with Strength and Conditioning Coach Roger Power. The afternoon consisted of a sailing trip, followed up a dinner in New York City.

Tuesday, students were received an aerobic and anaerobic training seminar. After that, it was off to the US Golf Association for a presentation and a tour.

Before the regular orientation activities began on Wednesday, the sports pre-orientation students took a tour of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center.

"This year's group of freshman have a wide variety of people," said Athletic Director Russell Rogers, and the program offered something for everyone. "Most individuals found something they liked," Rogers added, stating that the orientation was a "good opportunity for students to get to know each other better, [and] experience sports and fitness life [here at Stevens]."

Attendance to the sports pre-orientation was up from last year, with between 10 and 15 more participants this year.

Earlier this year, MGM et al appealed the ruling of a California District Court in its ruling in favor of peer-to-peer software companies Grokster, Streamcast and Sharman (for simplicity's case, I will simply refer to the defendants in the case as 'Grokster' although the courts finding apply equally to all). The appellants consist largely of MPAA and RIAA members, who clearly have no love for peer-to-peer networks. In the original ruling, the District Court held that Grokster was not liable for contributory or vicarious copyright infringement. As one would expect, the case appealed to the 9th Circuit, who issued a ruling in the case today.

The ruling of the 9th Circuit Court upholds that of the District Court in finding Grokster not liable for the content being shared by its users. The 9th Circuit also laid out the requirements for finding Grokster to be infringing. The test required three things to establish contributory infringement: direct infringement by a user (which went undisputed), knowledge of the infringement and material contribution to the infringement.

As noted, it went undisputed that direct infringement by third parties takes place over the network. With regard to "knowledge of the infringement," the court found that the software is capable of non-infringing uses, and has on record many examples of such. Following the precedent set in the original Napster case, the court held that "if a defendant could show that its product was capable of substantial or commercially significant noninfringing uses, then constructive knowledge of the infringement could not imputed." The court found that the uses presented to them were sufficient to be considered "substantial" and "commercially significant." This finding was over the arguments of the "Copyright Owners," as the court refers to the appellants in the case, that the primary use of the software was copyright infringement. "... the Copyright Owners argue that the evidence establishes that the vast majority of the software use is for copyright infringement. This argument misapprehends the Sony standard as construed in Napster I, which emphasized that in order for limitations imposed by Sony to apply, a product need only be capable of substantial noninfringing uses" (with original emphasis). "Napster I" refers to the first Napster case, where Napster was required to block filenames as provided by Copyright Owners. In a footnote, the court writes that "Indeed, even at a 10% level of legitimate use, as contended by the Copyright Owners, the volume of use would indicate a minimum of hundreds of thousands of legitimate file exchanges."

Without having constructive knowledge, the court looked at the question of whether Grokster had "reasonable knowledge of specific infringement." Here, the 9th Circuit agreed with the District Court in finding that the timing of notification of infringement was a factor. It is required that the alleged infringer had knowledge of the infringement when it occurred, and failed to act to stop it. As the "Copyright Owners" would simply provide Grokster with lists of infringements after the fact, there was nothing that could be done to stop the direct infringement. The court also noted that the "quasi-decentralized, supernode" architecture of the Grokster network meant that infringement would still be able to take place even if Grokster were to "close their doors and [deactivate] all computers within their control."

The court then considered the issue of material contribution. In contrast to the Napster case, where centralized index servers were operated by Napster, Grokster has no such servers, and thus no way to accurately view a large portion of the searches and transfers being conducted across its network. Since the network and its indices are created by use of the network and not by Grokster, what happens as a result of accessing such an index is not any fault of Grokster. Furthermore, the court found that the fact that Grokster and Sharman operate root nodes to facilitate supernodes and provide a brief XML file with some parameters, these are "too incidental to any direct copyright infringement to constitute material contribution."

One of the best quotes from the decision is that "the peer-to-peer file-sharing technlogy at issue is not simply a tool engineered to get around the holdings of" the decisions in the Napster cases. With all this established, the court does not "expand contributory copyright liability in the manner that the Copyright Owners request."

The court next looks at the claims of vicarious copyright infringement. As with contributory infringement, the court lists a three-part test for determining vicarious infringement, that there have been direct infringement by a third party, that the alleged vicarious infringer received financial benefit and that the alleged infringer have "the right and ability to supervise the users." The first two parts, direct infringement and financial benefit, are undisputed. The financial benefit comes from the advertising revenue from ads displayed in the software.

This leaves the question of whether Grokster had the "right and ability" to supervise the users of its software and network. Again, the decentralized nature of the network means that Grokster did not have the ability to terminate or supervise accounts, though their software's license agreement retained for them the right to terminate accounts. StreamCast did not even have that right, as there was no license agreement for their software. It is interesting to note that the court finds blocking access by IP address to be ineffective as large numbers of users do not have static IP addresses.

The court also writes that while there are certain measures that could have been taken to control access, they would have resulted in a universal ban on access, not control over specific accounts. From these findings, the court agrees with the District Court that the companies did not the ability to control their users. One of the arguments put forth by the "Copyright Owners" was that the Grokster was turning a "blind eye" to the copyright infringement taking place on its network via its software.

From these findings, the court agrees with the District Court that the companies did not the ability to control their users, and therefore, were not guilty of vicarious copyright infringement.

Many of the findings apply only to more recent versions of the software offered by Grokster. The appellants were also basing their claims on older versions, which operated in different ways than the newer ones. The District Court declined to rule on those versions, and the 9th Circuit likewise "express[ed] no opinion as to those issues."

The circuit court notes that "The Copyright Owners urge a re-examination of the law in the light of what they believe to be proper public policy, expanding exponentially the reach of the doctrines of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement" but believes that "such a renovation [would] conflict with binding precedent ... it would be unwise."

"Doubtless, taking that step would satisfy the Copyright Owners' immediate economic aims. However, it would also alter general copyright law in profound ways with unknown ultimate consequences outside the present context."

The circuit court believes that it is not the place of the courts to make decisions for the marketplace. "[H]istory has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests ... it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses." The Betamax decision is cited, mainly that it is the place of Congress to apply copyright law to new technologies.

While the first 25 pages of the 26-page decision are good news, I find this sentence to be quite disturbing. Given the push by the "Copyright Owners" for laws such as the INDUCE Act, it is conceivable that Congress may find that it is its place to regulate technological innovation in the interest of 'protecting copyright.' While the court is clearly following along with what has come from above it, that it appeared in such a high-profile decision is sure to increase the lobbying efforts of "Copyright Owners" for the INDUCE Act. It is quite possible that this decision will be pointed to and the claim made that if the courts will not solve the "rampant" problem of copyright infringement on the Internet, Congress must step in, and indeed, was told by the courts that they have the right and requirement to do just that. Hopefully, clearer heads will prevail and this decision will be seen as the right one, but I certainly would not bet against the "Copyright Owners" pushing for and receiving legislation along the lines of the INDUCE Act in the not-to-distant future.

So while the decision comes as a victory, I imagine it will only serve to further muddy the waters surrounding the "Copyright Owners" push for protective legislation in Congress.

For more information about the decision, check out some of these links:

• Grokster Wins Big in 9th Circuit from Ernest Miller
• EFF coverage
• Coverage from Donna Wentworth and Jason Schultz at Copyfight
• The decision

The biggest news of late (at least, that's applicable to this site) is the announcement that 321 Studios has decided to shut down. 321 Studios has been at the forefront of the MPAA's legal crusade against DVD copying. 321's flagship product, DVD X Copy, which allowed users to make backup copies of DVDs that were also stripped of the CSS, was denounced by the MPAA as a piracy tool. The legal struggle started back in 2002, when 321 preemptively sued several movie studios, seeking to have a court declare their product to be legal, heading off any lawsuits down the line. The studios countersued, and the matter has been tied up since. 321's failure to win a DMCA exemption in 2003 also came as a blow.

The end result of the whole mess has been to bankrupt the company. The MPAA's countersuit resulted in injuctions being issued against 321 Studio's software. Without a revenue source, and faced with mounting lawsuit costs, it was obvious that they could not put up the fight forever.

The downfall of 321 Studios comes a blow to those of us who hoped that the case would prove to be the catalyst for scaling back the DMCA, but the company was put into an untenable position through what Ars Techica described as a "paradox ... She [Judge Susan Illston] asserted that customer's(sic) appear to have a legal right to make backup copies of movies, but pointed out the DMCA made it illegal for customers to buy software that allows them to." This not a paradox created by her ruling. The DMCA creates that paradox, and Judge Illston read the law as it is written. The way §1201(a)(2)(A) is written does not leave any room for interpretation in the matter. DVD X Copy does circumvent the CSS encryption that "protects" the underlying work, and it is plainly stated in the law that:

No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that —

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title

It is conceivable that the argument could be made that the software was not designed specifically to circumvent CSS, but since the fact that it does is integral to the software, it is not likely this would stand up in court.

It was also announced that 321 Studios will be settling with the studios for an undisclosed but "substantial" sum of money, and the terms of the settlement bar 321 from selling DVD X Copy. In a statement issued before his retirement (which I will be getting to in a moment), Jack Valenti said that "321 Studios built its business on the flawed premise that it could profit from violating the motion picture studios' copyrights."

Now, it should be fairly obvious here that 321 Studios did not violate any of the MPAA's copyrights. §1201 of the copyright law covers circumvention of access control, not infringement or violation. It may (and I say may because this was never decided finally) be the case that 321 Studios was in violation of §1201, but this does not make them copyright violators.

Changing subjects slightly, I mentioned above that Jack Valenti has retired as the head of the MPAA, as noted by Tim Wu over at Lessig's blog. There are also some choice quotes of Valenti's from his years as the MPAA head, all of which are worth reading (for the amusement), but one of them deserves to be copied everywhere:

We are facing a very new and a very troubling assault ... and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape.
We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry ... whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine [the VCR].
...
[Some say] that the VCR is the greatest friend that the American film producer ever had. I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.

Since the Supreme Court's Betamax decision in 1984 (which ruled VCRs legal), video sales have been Hollywood's biggest source of profit. To hear the same companies make the same accusations again for new technologies would almost amusing, if it were not for the fact that they stand poised to put a stop to nearly all technological development in the future.

Yes, it is the Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act (S.2560), formerly the INDUCE Act. I am not going to into detail about it, as many others have already done a better job than I ever will, but if the bill becomes law, Congress (which already seems to lean heavily toward supporting the MPAA) will be required to effectively approve any new technology if there is the slightest chance that it could ever be used for an infringement of copyright. (For those interested, video of the hearing on the act is available directly or via BitTorrent.)

Even without the INDUCE Act, we are already seeing some of the effects of this mindset. Recently, the FCC approved TiVo's plan for allowing users to share recorded programs with up to 9 other users over the Internet. I think it is a shame that we have come to a point where we need to ask permission to develop something legal.

There is a good deal of other news to read up on, but for me to summarize any more of it here would be a waste of time, as Copyfight has been doing an excellent job of that lately. I hope to start writing of some more recent news as it comes up from now on.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that my presence here has been (virtually) nonexistant over the last few months. Just like nearly every other project of mine, this site has fallen by the wayside in favor of something else, or in some cases, absolutely nothing. This summer has been a re-enactment of that on a smaller scale. With a full-time job, and the random stuff that needs to be done while at home, the amount of time I have for personal pursuits is somewhat limited. Coupled with the fact that my job is mindless and dull, I frequently return home with no desire to do anything except watch TV for a few hours. On several occassions, that's just what I've done. A large number of other nights have been spent being equally as unproductive, with the exception that I might be at the computer. When I finally get around to working, it's usually some simple work on one of a number of projects I decided to undertake at some point or another.

I have a serious problem getting things finished. I have a project I started back in 2002, that if I had focused on it for a few weeks, a month or two tops, would have been done by now. But I haven't been able to do that, and so it remains uncompleted. It doesn't help that I keep adding and changing requirements for it without actually working on it, so the scope of the project is large enough to be daunted, which just makes me more unwilling to work on it.

This website is a lot like that. It was a project that started off with no defined goals (clear or otherwise) and for a while, I was motivated to work on it. The quality of the code for this is a reflection of that fact. It's horrible code, because it started off as one thing and then was changed into something else. When neither the original nor any of the changes to it had a plan or design of any sort, the end result is a mess. Just a few days I needed to fix a bug I found in some of the code for the site. This was the first time in several months I'd even looked at the code, and I was appalled. I couldn't believe that I had put something like that together, or that it had worked.

But there's still the content, and there was nothing wrong with my capability to add more of it. The problem there is one of attitude and not of technology. The first time that I started going weeks between updates was largely due to a feeling that what I was writing had no purpose, that the things I was covering were already being covered somewhere else, and that I wasn't adding anything new to it. This was true a lot at that point, where I was basically taking an event, or a case, or something, and just describing it. There wasn't anything of my own in there, there wasn't any opinion or personal feeling in it. With that came the self-doubt, and so I backed down from writing stuff for a little bit.

But then came the pressure to write, to keep the site updated, so I turned for a bit to writing about my life and my personal experiences. It was something I had tried to stay away from when I started the site off, and so I wasn't too happy about doing it, but it kept the site active, and so I kept doing it for a while.

Then came more self-doubt. There came the feeling that no one cared about me and what I did or what I felt. This was largely the result of reading Amit's site, when I one day realized that I just didn't give a shit how many times he vomited that day or how often he dreamed of pichu. I started to wonder why I had been reading stuff like that, and I stopped reading his site, among others.

From there, updates on my own site became spotty. I had given up on personal writing, and I had sort of fallen out from my intense interest in, well, anything. So there weren't any new updates ranting about copyright-this or copyright-that, partly because the world had reached a slow point in that regard, and partly because I was falling into a nonproductive zone. Writing stopped, coding stopped, basically, accomplishing anything stopped for a few months. I would spend hours at my computer each day, and when I would go to sleep I would realize that I hadn't actually DONE anything that particular day. This continued for far longer that I would like to admit.

Finally, I started to start working on things again. I did the simple updates to old pieces to code to make them work right or give them new features, and had some sense of accomplishment again. But I still wasn't writing. This was largely the result of a lack of self-discipline. I find myself working if and when I want to, on whatever I feel like working on at the time.

Then came summer. I left Hoboken to go home, not having a job, not having any plan, but I was trying to tell myself that I would be productive, that I would have lots of free time and I could finish all kinds of things. For the first week or so, I didn't do a damn thing. Hours were spent in front of my computer, and nothing got done. Then I started using my laptop most of the time. Before we got a wireless router, I worked on bits of code I had stored locally, with Apache and MySQL set up to test them. I'd also started a full-time, 8:30 to 4:30, job at that point, so the time I had to myself was basically from 6pm until midnight.

I was addicted to Law & Order for a while. TNT shows it for three hours a night, and after that there's usually an episode of SVU on USA. So I would be lying on my bed with my laptop, tapping away during the commercial breaks, watching TV most of the time.

Eventually I decided to purchase a wireless router so that I didn't have to fuck around with stuff to get changed code out to the appropriate sites. My ability to get stuff done dropped. Now I could spend the evening, like I had spent so many days before, wasting hours of time with absolutely no memory of what I did, and nothing to show for it. I managed to get myself to start working on code again, and in the end, going wireless was the right thing to do, because I can ultimately be more productive with it.

Of course, none of this explains why I haven't updated the site. It does, however, provide a clear example of what I was talking about - I get sidetracked easily. That was one of the major reasons for not updating; the other was that I just didn't feel like writing. That statement is part right and part wrong. I felt like writing, I had in my head all sorts of ideas of stuff to write about, I just didn't actually feel like doing the writing. This is probably because I spend large parts of my day at work at a computer transcribing stuff, and when I get home, I don't really feel like spending even more time typing. So a lot of good topics have come and gone from my mind, and a lot of stuff has gone uncovered and unreported.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately about the INDUCE Act. For all that reading, I haven't looked at it in-depth, so I won't be talking much about it, but it's worth mentioning. The idea of it is that it would be possible to prosecute or sue people and groups who induced infringement of copyright. That is, if something you did facilitated someone else's infringement of copyright, you could be held responsible. The idea of the act was to make peer-to-peer companies liable for what their users did, but as many have pointed out, it would also effectively undo the Betamax decision (which, for those who don't know, said that devices with "substantial non-infringing" uses were legal).

This seems like a good place to end this, because I'm running out of things to say that relate to this topic (even in tangential ways). What I hope to do in the future, update-wise, is to get myself to flesh out a lot of the ideas that come into my head. If I can do that, the possibilities for content are virtually limitless. I also intend to get back up to speed on what's been happening on the copyright front (as well as a couple of other areas I have interest in) and start talking about those. For whatever reason, though, I'm more able to do that back at school, so it might be a month or so before that comes about.

Cyprus votes against unification

Voters on the Greek side of the Mediterranean nation of Cyprus voted against unification of the island with the Turkish side. Cyprus, which has been divided for 30 years, held two votes about unification, one for the Turks and the other for the Greeks. The results of the Turkish vote favored unification with 60 percent of the vote, but among Greeks, nearly 75 percent of the voters have opposed the plan. The vote came ahead of Cyprus' entry in to the European Union, and the results mean that the Greek portion of the island will be admitted into the EU while the Turkish part will not.

North Korean train explosion kills 154

A collision involving two trains carrying combustible materials resulted in a massive explosion that killed 154 people and injured hundreds of others, according to North Korean sources. Nearly half of those killed are believed to have been students at a school near the site of the explosion. The cause of the collision is thought to be a problem with the railway's overhead wires, and North Korean officials blame 'human error' during the loading process that caused the materials to explode. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, North Korea cut off access to all external media, and only admitted to the explosion after Chinese news sources broke the story.

Clashes in Thailand leave over 100 dead

A series of suicide attacks on Thai security outposts have left 107 people, primarily the attackers, dead. The attacks, the work of Islamic militants in the embattled southern region, are believed to be retribution for the recent arrest of several people for setting fire to several schools. Security forces are bracing for a second wave of attacks and are keeping troops on alert.

Macedonian Prime Minister wins presidency

After the death of Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, who died in a plane crash in February, voters elected Prime Minister Branki Crvenkovski the country's new president. Sasko Kedev, the other candidate in the race, called the election "the worst election fraud in the history of Macedonia." Charging that Crvenkovski is not the legitimate president of Macedonia, Kedev has appealed the election results to the European Parliament and the United States Congress.

Explosions and gunfire force closure of Damascus embassies

As gunfire and explosions erupted in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the United States and the United Kingdom temporarily closed their embassies in the city. The turbulence took place in the city's diplomatic quarter, and left two suspected terrorists, a police officer and one passerby dead. Investigations into the violence led security officers to a hidden cache of weapons, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Another public hearing about the proposed Babbio parking garage ended without resolution on Tuesday, April 27. The meeting, which ran for nearly 3 hours, featured testimony from the lawyers on both sides, as well as a Boswell engineer and a state-licensed planner.

Charles Liebling, the lawyer arguing on behalf of Stevens, first corrected some statements from the previous hearing. At the request of several board members, he also introduced into evidence several photos of the garage area. He then called Boswell engineer Peter Ten Kate.

Ten Kate provided the board with information about the plan to put a campus police facility in the basement of the garage. The police facility would have views of both the garage and Fifth Street. The plan would eliminate 11 of the 725 spaces proposed for the garage. The facility is a response to another request by members of the board.

For Stevens' opposition, David Zimmerman, a New Jersey licensed planner, was called to testify. He went through each requested variance and discussed why he felt it should not be granted. He said that there was "a difference of opinion" between himself and Stevens planner Elizabeth McKenzie regarding the variances.

Zimmerman spoke about the garage being an "expansion of a non-conforming structure [,the Babbio center]" and that that garage is "part and parcel of the Babbio building." The Babbio center building required planning board approval as a second principle building on a lot; the ordinance allows for only one principle building per lot.

Another problem Zimmerman addressed was the proximity of the garage to a residential district; Sinatra Park, located across the street from the garage, is zoned as a residential district. A Hoboken ordinance requires buildings such as the garage to be set back at least 100 feet from residential districts; the garage, as planned, is set back 31.1 feet.
One of the most-discussed issues was that of open space. According to Zimmerman, the plan only provides 7% of the area as open space, while a Hoboken ordinance requires at least 50%. Liebling responded to this point by saying that the rest of the campus contains large amounts of open space, which should be looked at favorably for granting a variance regarding open space. Zimmerman's response was "I don't buy the representation that you can look at the whole site ... the whole south side is covered in buildings."

Zimmerman concluded his testimony by stating that he did not believe the garage, as proposed, was the best use for the site, and that Stevens should consider an off-site parking facility with shuttles. This point was later rebutted by Liebling, who said that one of the requirements Stevens faces is having on-site parking. Zimmerman also mentioned that since Stevens required an "exceptional number of variances", perhaps they were "before the wrong body" and should look to the city council to change zoning laws to lessen the number of variances required.

Following Zimmerman's testimony, the zoning board questioned him about some of what he testified to. In particular, his thoughts about usage of the site and the number of variances were discussed. Liebling then had the chance to cross-examine Zimmerman, and took the opportunity to refute several of the points he had made. An emphasis was placed on the importance of the garage, as there is a statutory requirement for parking on-site, and residents of the smaller streets have stated that they do not want shuttle buses running. In response to a point Zimmerman had made about submitting an alternate proposal, Liebling said that the job of the board is not to "take pieces" and make a plan, but to simply approve or deny the plan which is before them. The board agreed with this assessment, with one member saying that "we're not here to redesign the project."

By the end of the meeting, no resolution had been reached, and the board requested that McKenzie come to the next meeting to refute portions of Zimmerman's testimony.

When asked about the meeting, Stevens Vice President of Facilities Hank Dobbelaar said he felt Zimmerman was "not convincing at all" and did not do a good job of refuting McKenzie's testimony. Dobbelaar expressed hope that the next meeting "will be the one when the board votes." When asked about what would happen if the variances were denied, Dobbelaar stated that there are alternatives, but they would only be addressed when and if the need arises.

Recently, Stevens and its Howe School of Technology Management was named a 'Center of Excellence in Business Process Innovation' by SAP and IDS Scheer.

You may recognize this as the same part of Stevens that offers the Business & Technology major. This is also the portion of the institute that is having a shiny new building constructed - the Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr. Center for Technology Management. Referred to by some students as the "biz-tech building;" once completed it will be home to offices and classes for the undergraduate Business & Technology program as well as the graduate management and business programs.

I am sure many of you have noticed the Stevens advertisements in PATH cars. You have probably also noticed which particular area of the institute is being advertised: the Howe School and its business and management courses.

Last time I checked, this college was still known as 'Stevens Institute of Technology" (emphasis mine, of course). The engineering program is the largest undergraduate program, followed by computer science and then the sciences; physics, chemistry, etc. Near the bottom of this list is the business & technology program. While each new year brings more biz-tech majors to the school, they are still outnumbered by engineering, computer science, and science majors.

It seems to be the trend that the business portion of Stevens is what is being most actively pushed. For an "institute of technology," this seems to be the wrong focus. There are plenty of schools that are focused on educating students in business; it is not the sort of thing you would expect to find at a tech school.

Perhaps, if Stevens integrated business education into its other majors, this push to expand the business program would not seem as awkward. As it is now, though, the management and business courses are generally kept separate from the engineering and science programs. Engineering students are required to take a Technogenesis course, and computer science majors are required to take an economics class, but other than that, there are no business or management classes taken by non-biz-techs.

Somewhere down the line, it may be reasonable for Stevens to rename itself "Stevens Institute of Business." At least, that is a possibility if this trend continues. It is interesting to consider what such a change might do to a B.E. or B.S. degree earned from the school; would employers expect them to have more business knowledge, or would they look down on Stevens engineering and science graduates?