VIEWPOINTS
f Of f ORlAl S OPINIONS IfTTINS TO TMf (OlTOft
All teens having sex in
need of protection
■ OUR OPINION: Giving
condoms only to kids with
STDs solves just pan erf
the problem
In a oust ton* blow (nr
both pragmatism and dis
ease jinn t.niton, the Kugene
School Board voted
Wednesday to allow school
health dime* to distribute
condoms to students diag
hommI with a Mutually trims
mittiHi disease
This da* iston came over
the standard obp* lions
Some parents wore, as usual,
convinced that any distribu
tion of condoms in schools
sends the unacceptable me*
sago lt> teen* that underage
ms, "safe” or not. it
oudorsod by the school dis
trict But who can hoar such
a subtle message, if it** real
ly there at all. amid the roar
of other pro-sex propaganda,
in the media ami among the
teens themselves?
Th« thing that made this
prti|wisal for distribution
succeed where earlier effort*
luive fader] was the promise
that condoms won hi tie
given only to those already
infected with STD* — not to
"'healthy" students Bui this
distinction could hardly Imi
more irrational, if the seined
district think* handing out
condoms promotes sex
among minors.
Think about it: If handing
out condoms encourages
kids to have mix, and with
holding them promotes
alaitinence. then the last
jwoplo you'd want to give
condoms to would be those
with disease* They’re the
ones who need the absti
nence pitch the most,
becauM by having sex. they
hurt others as well as them
selves.
But no. the district has
dec ided the abstinence angle
won't wuri with those kid*
— and they may be right If
the*** student* are going to
have *e* anyway, the dis
trict «one wl**s they might as
well do it with protection
Essentially, the district ha*
realized that its "position"
agatnsl underage sex will
have little influence on the
behavior of these students
But what the district does
not realize is that uninfected
students don’t care about the
district's "poaitlon." either.
They want to get some, too.
Why should the schqpl
board think teens with STDs
are more likely than their
uninfected fater* to ignore
the district's altitude and
continue to have sex? Some
people t oistrin t a disease in
a single sexual episode, oth
ers have unpmfm.ted sex
repeatedly without getting
anything Whether someone
has an STD is not an accu
rate measure of that person's
ability to refrain from hav
ing sex By creating a double
standard based on that
premise, the Kugene School
Board only perpetuates a
harmful myth
Distributing condoms in
school may make sex slight
ly more appealing to some
students, but this society is
full of images and attitudes
that carry a lot more weight
with such people than what
the school hoard says.
Against that tide, the district
should recognize its weak
ness and help out the only
way it tan by distributing
condoms to any student
responsible enough to ask
for them
lake it or not. this society
does approve of sex. no mat
ter what the gray old men of
Washington have to say
about it. Young people, bent
on betiding each other, must
have easy access to protec
tion.
Emerald
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Semantics Preserve Software for Li’l Guy
H ha* lawn illegal it* rent Minwiw time the
tawnputer Software Rental Act wu passed by
Congress in ’90, but • loophole in the act
enabled stores such a* Software Pipeline in
Kufene to continue doing business Under lh«
term* of the Act, t*»ftwate rental businesses were
allowed to i onimue renting old program*
already on the shelves, with the stipulation that
th»> gradually (are-out rental* and i mat over to
retail The problem l» that no one bothered to
make the ctmi-ow.
Store* continued to rent toft ware, and cus
tomer* continued to engage In a quasi 'legitimate
(orm of software pirating Men handite that
would normally tell for teveral hundred dollar*
could be rented few a twenty dollar pittanc e per
manently installed on a personal hard drive, and
returned five d«\ s later with a wink and a hand
shake
MiiiM-arr renter* )u*tify their
bu*tn<MM* with I ho argument
i hat amiumm h«v« a right to
i*»i iKuii software before they
pun h**e it A* with an other
topsi hajulut- cuttomer* must
1)0 Ohio to mm wrhai they re
buying and have the right to
return it if it** unacceptable
Unlike other men hand!***,
however. w .ft ware enable*
automat* to twintauentlv
OPINIO#
iwquir® the jwoduct without paving fur (he dubt
ou* privilege of having it legally registered in
liieir name The mahlm* software rental* have
l*™«n an open mm.-.ret for year*
If* an open secret that make* software compa
nies boil. Companies *uch a* Microsoft low
thousand* every year to pirating They have no
way of regulating rental*, and trusting in con
turners’ integrity to delete the program after
borrow mg’ it is a long *hot. especially when
exorbitant tuft ware price* have consumers boil
ing in turn
It look the software industry six years, but
they've finally done something about it. Two
month* ago. the Software Publishers Association
filed lawsuits against software rental businesses
errasa the country The Association has a strong
case, software rentals are unequivocally illegal,
and most every one acknowledges it.
But in a society fed on democratic principles
spiced with a "screw the rich" mentality, multi
million dollar software companies don't get
much sympathy from working folk Student dis
counts discounted, the retail price of a program
like Pagenutker 60 is $500 Nobody seriously
interesting in staying abreast of technology
comes by his or her software legitimately if It
can be avoided
Once installed on a personal computer it's
impossible for copyright owners to determine if
materia) has been pirated, unless perhaps the
computer owner later exposes his or her files to
ft
In a society fed on democratic principles
spued with a “screw ther fich " mentality,
multt milium dollar software companies
don't get meuh sympathy fnw working folk,
99
>•!**< itonit registration. {this could be a rumor,
but if it‘» no! possible for Mil rrosoft to scan a
customer's computer file* now, it will In* later )
Even then, power cells and portable hard drives
can hide all sorts of data from prying eyes.
Many software renters have responded to the
lawsuit* by further stretching the legal loop,
holes under which they do business A local
business, Software Pipeline, almost immediately
revamped its shelves and modified its sales
pitch to accommodate the software industry's
scrutiny Officially, Software Pipeline no longer
rents software; instead, it offers to sell its soft
ware with a 100 percent money-bach guarantee
Now. the shiny new software packages on
Software Pipeline's shelves come with stir keis
warning customers that the product may have
been previously used The price tag* that twice
advertised cheap rental prices have been
replaced by a discrete warning that returned
merchandise will he subject to a 10 percent
O Nt.K king fee " < jjlcul.ilcd nut. the 10 pert cut
fee is noual to the price Software Pipeline for
merly charged for its rentals
Under the new subterfuge, customers “pur
chase" the entire product, complete with books,
toll-free assistance numbers and shiny boxes
The business is remarkably forthright about its
retail transition; each sale is accompanied by the
smiling, winking guarantee that you'll be back
before your five-day trial period lapses
Simply by fudging with the semantics of the
retail contract, software rental businesses cam
circumvent the Computer Software Rental Act
indefinitely. How one feels about this will prob
ably depend on whether or not you're Bill Gates
but I'm tattling most democratically minded citi
***** will be fine with it It's unethical, it's ille
CI and it's irresponsible, but darn It. have you
uked at those retail prices? The software rental
business may he armed with semantic loop
holes, but these are little guns compared to the
killing software manufacturers make via annual
upgrades, built-in obsolescence, and advancing
technology •hat leaves customer* scrambling to
keep up. Let software rental buatneases and their
customers eel cake
Sonfa Sherwood, motoring in foumalum and Eng
huh. is a columnist for the Emerald who has occa
sionally been ripped off on software