Purr-feet weather
A cat uses a break in the weather Wednesday to play with a bug in a puddle.
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Campus buzz
Saturday
Chinese Popular Culture Conference
(sponsored by East Asian Languages),
7:45 a.m.-6:45 p.m., Cerlinger Lounge.
Chinese Student Association Barbecue
(meet in front of the University Bookstore
at 9:45 a.m., transportation to reservoir
provided), 9:45 a.m.-5 p.m., Fern Ridge
Reservoir, about 15 minutes west of
Eugene, $5,913-6959,221-3322.
Joel Pietsch (master's recital, piano), noon,
Beall Hall, free.
Michelle White (senior recital, bassoon),
2 p.m., Beall Hall, free.
Dance party (sponsored by Campus
Crusade for Christ), 9 p.m.-1:30 a.m.,
EMU Fir Room.
Monday
Chi Alpha (meeting), 6:30-9 p.m., EMU
Metolius Room.
Scott Alan King (Doctoral Recital, horn),
8 p.m., Beall Hall, free.
Pirating
continued from page 1
RIAA President Gary Sherman
said in a prepared statement that
the systems being used at the uni
versities — called Phynd, Flatlan or
Direct Connect — work along the
same lines as Napster.
“The court ruled that Napster was
illegal and shut it down,” he said.
“These systems are just as illegal
and operate in just the same man
ner.” In February 2001, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that
Napster knew its users were violat
ing copyright law, and Napster
agreed to remove a list of songs from
its server.
However, some say that RIAA is
missing the key point of these three
new services. Fred Von Lohmann, an
attorney with Electronic Frontier
Foundation, which is a digital civil
liberties group that has defended var
ious file sharing companies against
the RIAA, said that all Phynd, Flatlan
and Direct Connect seemed to do
was index files available on a network
that already existed.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any
thing wrong with building a tool to
do that,” he said. “And it doesn’t
seem like there’s anything wrong
with running that tool.”
The technology used by the
three servers varies, with Direct
Connect resembling Napster the
most by allowing users to connect
to a central server and download
files from each other. In contrast,
Flatlan lets the user set up a search
engine that searches computers
that are connected to a campus
network and have Windows file
sharing turned on. The main differ
ence between Flatlan and Napster
is Flatlan searches a network that
already exists. Phynd is a generic
search engine that allows users to
configure it to search everything
from Web sites to local files that are
found on a college network.
RIAA countered the argument
that the three servers are different
from Napster in a press release,
however, stating that the networks
work similarly by centrally indexing
and processing search requests for
copyrighted works, adding that net
work operators “can’t help but be
aware of the copyright infringement
they facilitate.”
RIAA representatives could not
be reached at press time.
In the lawsuit filed against Flatlan
creator Aaron Sherman, a student
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
RIAA claimed Sherman created a
system that is designed to enable
and facilitate widespread and unau
thorized copying and distribution of
sound recordings over the campus’s
local area network.
A local area network, also called
LAN, is a computer network dis
persed over a limited, defined geo
graphical area, such as a university
campus, through which one com
puter can interact with all other
computers within the network.
The lawsuit accused Sherman of
“hijacking an academic computer
network and installing on it a market
place for copyright piracy that is used
by others to copy and distribute mu
sic illegally.” The RIAA, the plaintiff
in the case, is asking that the court is
sue a permanent injunction to stop
Sherman from directly or indirectly
infringing on copyright, along with
maximum statutory damages in the
amount of $150,000 for each copy
right work infringed, and payment of
RIAA’s attorney’s fees.
“This is a particularly flagrant
way to illegally distribute millions of
copyrighted works over the Inter
net,” Sherman said in a statement.
“The lawsuits we’ve filed represent
an appropriate step, given the seri
ousness of the offense.”
Contact the reporter
atalishaughnessy@dailyemerald.com.
Music
continued from page 1
no longer effective in the real world.
“If successful, we will be the nail
in the coffin for the record industry,
whose only remaining advantage is
its national reach,” Fitehouse mem
bers said in their press release.
However, computer music Associ
ate Professor and University Future
Music Oregon Program Director Jef
frey Stolet said that while the Inter
net is a model for music distribution,
it is not yet economically viable.
“I’m not aware of bands becoming
famous because they have good dis
tribution over the Internet,” Stolet
said. “People like to buy atoms; they
like to buy bits. They’re used to it.”
Cohen argued that many people
misunderstand the role record sales
play in an artist’s economic survival.
“The whole idea that bands make
money from record royalties is
somewhat amiss, because there are
very few artists who can make mon
ey off record sales,” he said, noting
production costs, and the “dirty lit
tle secret” of companies withhold
ing royalties until debts are paid.
“When you sell your own record,
you’re keeping (the profits) all your
self,” Cohen said. He added that all
the members of Fitehouse have other
jobs, and many bands play for sheer
joy rather than monetary gains.
Cohen said Fitehouse is supportive
of fans sharing the band’s music via
the Web. In fact, he encourages lis
teners to download the group’s songs
and post them on file sharing sites.
“We would love for people to
share our music,” he said. “What is
interesting is that they claim if
you’re file sharing, you’re stealing
from the artists, etc., and that’s real
ly not what copyright is all about.
The problem is media concentra
tion. Is copyright doing what it was
designed to do? Is it really increas
ing variety? And it’s not.”
Stolet said that as a professional
musician, he doesn’t find the quality
of the MP3 file format — by far the
most prevalent for exchanging music
over the Internet—good enough for
exchanging music. He said high qual
ity requires a greater bandwidth.
However, Stolet was critical of how
record labels handle their artists. He
said most artists support file sharing
because it has minimal effects on the
ones creating the music.
“No one cares because it’s not
hurting the artists — it’s hurting the
record companies,” he said. “No
one feels sorry for the record com
panies because they’ve been screw
ing the artists for so long.”
Contact the Pulse editor
atjacquelynlewis@dailyemerald.com
and the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
— poppi 7—
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Nights or performances
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BIRKENSTOCK
Free Repair Tune-ups
Saturday, April 19 10-4
The Footwise repair experts will
be in the store for cork sealing,
conditioning and repair evaluations.
EOOTWISE
THE BIRKENSTOCK STORE
181 E Broadway • Downtown Eugene • 342-6107
Mon-Fri, 10-6 & Sun 11-5