Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, November?, 2001
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Michael J. Kleckner
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Editorial
It s time we talk
about sharing
Congratulations to Network Services for final
ly being upfront about bandwidth problems
and peer-to-peer file sharing application vi
olations. University Provost John Moseley has
warned students via e-mail to stop using file shar
ing to download and distribute copyrighted mate
rials because it violates federal law. If the adminis
tration had been forthcoming with this
information to begin with, the nearly 400 cases
that University officials have investigated this year
might have been avoided.
So here’s how file sharing and copyright law
works:
When students in residence halls plug comput
ers into the University’s network, an account is cre
ated which is public record and owned by the Uni
versity. Therefore, all downloads and uploads
could potentially be monitored. Read: There is no
privacy with a University account — it belongs to
the state.
To avoid breaking the law, students should only
download non-copyrighted material. Students
must acquire file-sharing programs, such as Mor
pheus or Kazaa, to participate in peer-to-peer
sharing. Once you obtain the software, you are
able to share freely, as long as the materials are
not copyrighted.
Anything you could buy at a store normally
falls under the umbrella of copyrighted materi
als. Once again, do not download copyrighted
material. Any infringement could be monitored
by Network Services, although they normally do
this only for heavy bandwith users. Subsequent
violations will result in your port-being shut off
as well as a meeting with the Office of Student
Conduct.
Once the file-sharing program is installed, other
Internet users can upload files from students,
whether the students are in front or their computers
or not. This takes a lot of the University’s band
width. So, don’t leave for the weekend with file
sharing software running. Once the file-sharing is
done, students should disable the software so they
do not clog the server. Students who wish to delete
the programs can find instructions at the Microcom
puter Services’ Web site at
http://micro.uoregon.edu.
Remember, personal privacy is not your right
when the account is owned by the University. By
disabling applications when not in use, bandwidth
is not exploited by other Internet users — although
students may end up on the Network Services’ hit
list if they download enormous files.
If the University had explained file sharing as
simply as we just did, hundreds of students might
not have had their service disconnected.
Please include contact information. The Emerald
reserves the right to edit tor space, grammar and style.
Editorial Board Members
Jessica Blanchard Julie Lauderbaugh
editor in chief editorial editor
Michael J. Kleckner Jacquelyn Lewis
managing editor assistant editorial editor
Gahe Shaughnessy Grant Leffler
community representative community representative
Thomas Patterson
newsroom representative
Letters to the editor
Emerald needs
more worldly news
Today I saw my brother on campus
at the EMU. We are both University of
Oregon students and are both con
scious and worried about the current
war state our nation is in. Policies and
laws are changing daily in support of a
higher police state and more power in
cases of possible terrorism. At the
same time, people are dying in
Afghanistan while we hunt for the
possible terrorists of the Sept. 11 at
tacks. As if things were not frightening
enough, we have the scare of anthrax
and biological warfare rippling across
the country.
While my brother and I talked of
this, he picked up an Oregon Daily
Emerald. We looked to see what was
going on at present in our country.
Surprisingly, we found not one single
word in the whole paper relating to
anything pertaining to the state of our
nation or the world. Instead, we found
a front page article on speed limits
around campus (“Feeling the need to
speed,” ODE, 10/30).
I understand that this is important,
but I expected more from my peers,
my school and University students
and faculty in general. Universities are
traditionally hotbeds for activism, re
search and learning, which is part of
the reason I came here, and I feel like
we are silently watching the world
crumble around us. The least I expect
is that the Emerald will take notice of
the things happening around us daily.
It does not have to be a spread, just
something, please.
Jacob Houck
senior
music
Frohnmayer available to students
I would like to make my fellow stu
dents aware of an amazing and rare
opportunity that will take place Nov.
13. President Frohnmayer will be
available for coffee and open conver
sation with students in the Fir Room.
This is the first opportunity of such
that I have encountered during my
time at the University of Oregon. I
highly encourage students to take ad
vantage of such an opportunity and
voice their opinions and concerns.
Students should jump at the chance
to have their questions answered and
hear our president’s views regarding
campus issues. Do not let this oppor
tunity pass you by. Everyone has a
concern, and this is the perfect time to
have it addressed. It is time to quit
complaining and start taking action
about issues you wish to see changed
on your campus.
Lacy Ogan
sophomore
pre-journalism
Steve Baggs
Military school must be shut down
The U.S. Army School of the
Americas, recently renamed the
Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation and placed un
der the direction of the Department of
Defense, is a combat training school for
Latin American military personnel.
The school is currently located at Ft.
Benning, Ga. During its 5 5-year history,
the WHISC has readied more than
60,000 Latin American troops in com
mando tactics, military intelligence,
psychological operations and ad
vanced combat skills. Graduates have
been cited for massacres, rapes, tor
tures and assassinations throughout
Latin America. We, as taxpayers, spend
$20 million annually for this school.
WHISC graduates use skills learned
from training to quell uprisings of the
poor working class. When taken into
perspective, the results of their training
are obvious, given the numbers of non
combatant civilians murdered or “dis
appeared”: in Guatemala, 200,000; in
El Salvador, 78,000 ; in Colombia,
300,000, where 14 die daily; not to
mention Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina,
Uruguay, etc.
Colombia is enduring the hemi
sphere’s worst human rights crisis. Hu
man rights, union, university and reli
gious leaders are among the many
people living under death threats or
forced into exile. Guerilla groups and
Guest Commentary
Matt
Hornback
right-wing paramilitaries both target
civilians, who they claim are support
ers of the other side. Guerillas commit
serious violations, but paramilitaries
commit the vast majority of all atroci
ties in Colombia. One figure states that
in 1999,78 percent of the atrocities
were committed by the paramilitaries.
The army, though directly responsible
for fewer violations, has extensive links
with paramilitary forces at a local and
regional level. Some army officers facil
itate the work of the paramilitaries or
look the other way as violence occurs.
A 1993 human rights report cites 247
Colombian officers for human rights
violations. Fully one half of those cited
were WHISC graduates. Some were
even featured as WHISC guest speakers
or instructors, or included in the “Hall
of Fame” after their involvement in
such crimes. For example, Gen. Farouk
Diaz was a guest speaker at the school
in 1990 and 1991 after his involvement
in the 1988 Uraba massacre of 20 ba
nana workers, the assassination of the
mayor of Sabana de Torres, and the
massacre of 19 businessmen. Accord
ing to a U.S. State Department report,
he was also accused of establishing
and expanding paramilitary death
squads, as well as ordering dozens of
disappearances and the killing of
judges and court personnel sent to in
vestigate previous crimes.
WHISC graduates have been linked
to some of Colombia’s most heinous
massacres, including the 1998 mas
sacre in Segovia in which 43 people
were killed, the Trujillo chain saw
massacres, which took place between
1988 and 1991 and the 1993 Riofrio
massacre.
Last May, Representatives Jim Mc
Govern, D-Mass., Joe Scarborough, R
Fla., Joe Moakley, D-Mass., Connie
Morelia, R-Md., Christopher Shays, R
Conn., and Lane Evans, D-Ill., intro
duced a bill to close the WHISC. The
bill, HR1810, calls for closure of the
school and the establishment of a joint
congressional task force to assess U.S.
training of Latin American military.
Currently, there are 82 supporters in
the House. Sen. Wyden supports the
effort, unlike Sen. Smith. We must urge
his support.
The former School of the Americas
is a school of terrorism. We must
work together to close this School of.
Assassins.
Matt Hornback is a freshmarrmajoring
in political science.