Illegally downloaded tunes may surf fans into jail
■A local music store strives
to educate consumers on the
copyright laws violated in
services such as Napster
By Simone Ripke
Oregon Daily Emerald
The controversy over the popu
lar MP3 service provider Napster
has been raging with some musi
cians suing the company and fans
being banned from access. While
the issue has raised an abundance
of questions among users, there
have been few answers.
Napster, which provides access
to music in the MP3 format, has
quickly gained popularity among
music lovers, especially college
students nationwide, but a New
York federal judge recently ruled
the company was breaking copy
right law by providing its users
free music. Metallica and the
Recording Industry Association of
America sued Napster and de
manded its users be banned from
access to their works.
In an effort to close the void be
tween the issues and to help edu
cate music consumers and Nap
ster users about the consequences
of downloading music for free, Eu
gene digital record company Rum
blefish Records teamed up with
other companies to launch the
Downloadable Music Awareness
project, or D.M.A. Rumblefish
Records’ CEO and founder Paul
Anthony said the goal of D.M.A. is
to educate consumers about the
consequences of their actions
when downloading music for free
from MP3 providers such as Nap
ster.
“There’s just an unbelievable
amount of lack of awareness,” he
said. “When you ask someone... if
they feel bad about downloading
music, they say they don’t.”
D.M.A. fliers point out that the
No Electronic Theft Act, or N.E.T.
Act, has been enforced since May
1 and has provisions for penalties
ranging from fines of $100,000 to
$250,000 and prison terms of one
to three years for as little as the re
production or distribution of one
copyrighted work.
Currently, Rumblefish Records,
Portland-based Supertracks and
audio key technology company
Cognicity comprise D.M.A. But
Anthony said both the RIAA and
Artists’ Coalition Against Piracy
have commended the project’s ef
forts and might be considering ei
ther a coalition with D.M.A. or
even the undertaking of a joined
project.
Michael Robb, vice president of
sales at Cognicity, said his compa
ny decided to participate in
D.M.A. in an effort to convey to
music lovers and consumers that
there might not be music in that
form in the future if they continue
to consume it for free.
“The biggest thing is that people
need to be aware of the content
rights of the content owners,” he
said.
Rumblefish Records’ projects
coordinator Jeff Trinci said D.M.A.
will help inform students and oth
er digital-music consumers to
learn about the consequences their
consumption of free MP3 might
have.
“D.M.A. is important basically
because people need to be aware
that the copyright infringements
that they are committing are ille
gal,” he said.
D.M.A. fliers have been handed
out around campus, the communi
ty and are available on the compa
ny’s Web site. Anthony said so far
the response of consumers to the
flier has been positive.
“It always sparks conversa
tions,” he said.
He said the flier provides some
answers to the issue’s and recent
developments regarding Napster
and copyright laws.
“Everyone bitches and moans
about Napster, but no one offers a
solution,” he said.
Trinci and Robb said it is too
early to tell how successful
Fines for pirating
Under the No Electronic Theft or
N.E.T. Act consumers of free MP3s
can expect the following conse
quences:
Crime: reproduction or distribu
tion of one or more copyrighted
works
Penalty: $100,000 fine and 1 year
in prison
or
Crime: reproduction or distribu
tion of 10 or more copyrighted
works
Penalty: $250,000 fine and three
years in prison
source: Downloadable M usic Awa reness
project
D.M.A. will be and how large it
will grow.
Robb said it seems to make
sense for people in the music in
dustry to join and participate in
the effort to educate consumers of
music.
0019471
To earn a 4*00
in Brewology
all you need to
know is
STEELHEAD*
n 9 Award-Winning Micro-Brews
□ Sonps, Salads □ Ribs n Fresh Pizza
□ Sandwiches n Pastes n Burgers
□ Spirits n Home-Made Rootbeer
TAKE A BREW HOME IN STEELHEAD'S BOX O' BEER
Steelhead Brewing Company
199 East 5th Avene Eogeie, OR Phone 686-2739
Eugene, OR - Birliigame, CA - Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, CA - Irvine, CA
Rape revenged with sword attack
■ MohamedTarish Al
Hameli allegedly stabbed a
friend whom he accused of
raping his 14-year-old wife
TACOMA, Wash. — A commu
nity college student has been
charged with using a sword to try
to kill a fellow student whom he
accused of raping his 14-year-old
wife.
Mohamed Tarish Al-Hameli,
25, pleaded innocent Wednesday
to attempted first-degree murder.
Pierce County Superior Court
Judge Brian Tollefson set bail at
$200,000.
The 22-year-old man who was
stabbed was listed in satisfactory
condition Wednesday at Har
borview Medical Center in Seat
tle. Sheriffs detectives are inves
tigating the rape accusation,
deputy Ed Troyer said.
Sheriffs deputies gave the fol
lowing account:
A neighbor told authorities
Tuesday night he heard yelling
and saw Al-Hameli, a student at
Pierce College, running from an
apartment in Lakewood, a suburb
south of town near Fort Lewis.
In the apartment, the neighbor
found a bloodied and badly in
jured man and applied towels to
the man’s wounds. He then sum
moned authorities from a nearby
pay telephone after finding the
phone in the unit had been pulled
from the wall.
The injured man, who had
been stabbed in the legs and arms
and at least once in the chest, told
deputies a friend from the up
stairs apartment had stabbed him
with a sword but he did not know
why.
Deputies followed bloody foot
prints upstairs, where they found
Al-Hameli covered with blood
and hugging his young wife. A
few feet away, a small, bloody
sword lay on the floor.
Al-Hameli told the deputies he
acted in revenge after his friend
admitted raping his wife the pre
vious day and apologized.
Troyer said emergency dis
patch operators received three
calls from Al-Hameli and his wife
Monday.
First Al-Hameli said his apart
ment had been burglarized and
his wife was missing. An hour lat
er, his wife called for help from a
pay phone, but deputies could
find neither her nor her husband.
Then Al-Hameli called from St.
Clare Hospital, saying he had tak
en his wife there because she had
been raped.
The Associated Press
I Crayola crayons declared asbestos-free
■The company counters
reports with a test of its own,
but results have yet to be
completely verified
By Jennifer Brown
The Associated Press
An independent testing lab
hired by Crayola said Thursday
that the nation’s most popular
crayons do not contain asbestos,
conflicting with a published re
port earlier this week.
RJ Lee Group of Pittsburgh
found no asbestos in talc, which
is used to keep crayons from
breaking, or in the completed
crayons.
The independent lab report
conflicts with a report by the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer this
week that two government-certi
fied labs found asbestos in
crayons from three major manu
facturers. The asbestos, which
can be harmful if inhaled, was re
portedly found in talc.
Of 40 crayons that were tested
for the P-I, 32 were contaminated
above trace levels, the newspaper
reported.
The newspaper said Thursday
the labs had re-examined their
findings and stand by the conclu
sions.
“We’re glad that Crayola says
their crayons are free of all as
bestos fibers. We’ll be even happi
er if the Consumer Products Safe
ty Division makes the same deter
mination,” P-I reporter Andrew
Schneider said Thursday after
noon, speaking for himself and
co-writer Carol Smith.
“Lots of other labs throughout
the country are now examining
crayons for asbestos, and it will
be interesting to see what their
analysis shows.”
RJ Lee, which has nearly 15
years experience in asbestos
analysis for government agencies
and private firms, conducted
three tests on the talc and on two
different color crayons. Tests
were on Crayola’s pink carnation
and orchid.
The new results were forward
ed to the Consumer Product Safe
ty Commission.
“The combination of those
techniques, which definitively
determine whether or not as
bestos is present, confirmed that
the talc used in Crayola crayons
and the finished products do not
contain asbestos and are safe for
consumers,” said Dr. Richard Lee,
president of RJ Lee and a consult
ant on asbestos analysis for the
Environmental Protection
Agency.
Asked about the discrepancy,
* Lee said it was possible the news- *
paper’s labs misidentified the
compound. The newspaper re
fused to release their labs’ results,
Crayola spokeswoman Tracey
Muldoon Moran said.
“It has been common in the
past for labs to misidentify talc
fibers and cleavage materials as
asbestos. That may be what hap
pened in the case of the Seattle re
port. However, without their re
port and data, we cannot
determine if their findings are a
result of misidentification,” Lee
said in a statement released by
Easton, Pa.-based Crayola.
There are no known reports of
anyone getting sick from using or
making crayons. And asbestos-re
lated illness tends to result from
exposure to airborne fibers —
usually in an industrial setting.
On Wednesday, Crayola said it
was researching alternatives to
talc, though the company main
tains its products are safe.
Meanwhile, the poison control
center at Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia received many calls
from parents worried about the
safety of crayons, Dr. Kevin Oster
houdt said Thursday.
“I’m telling people that’s it’s too
early for panic. Kids have used
crayons for 100 years and no toxic
effects of asbestos have ever been
noticed in those children,” the
pediatrician said. “If there is as
bestos in crayons it needs to be re
moved and we need to quickly
and effectively investigate the sit
uation.
“But we don’t need to panic
and we don’t need to throw out
our crayons just yet.”