Anti-piracy campaign from BSA finds first university participant [ip]
Begin forwarded message:
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Date: May 4, 2005 10:36:28 PM EDT
To: politech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Politech] Anti-piracy campaign from BSA finds first
university participant [ip]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Interesting Development: Marquette and BSA Join Forces
Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 09:20:36 -0500
From: Eric Goldman <egoldman@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Eric Goldman <egoldman@xxxxxxxxx>
To: declan@xxxxxxxx
Declan, Marquette University made an interesting announcement earlier
this week. Marquette announced that it is joining the Business
Software Association's "Define the Line" anti-piracy program. The
text of Marquette's announcement:
"Marquette is participating in the launch of "Define the Line," a
national program aimed at discouraging illegal sharing and downloading
of software. The program calls upon students, faculty and staff to
ensure they are properly and legally sharing and downloading software
and other digital copyrighted work including music and movies.
According to a study conducted by Internet Piracy on Campus, only 32
percent of students are paying for software most of the time, meaning
potentially 68 percent of students who are potentially using
commercial software illegally.
Marquette is the first university in the country to implement this
program. "Define the Line" is designed to educate students about using
commercial software legally, respecting copyrighted works online, and
understanding the impact of software theft on everyone. The Business
Software Alliance, the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a
safe and legal digital world, is a co-sponsor of the program to raise
awareness about these important issues with university students,
faculty and staff. Go to http://www.definetheline.com for more
information.
Marquette will implement this program through a variety of outreach
efforts aimed at students, faculty and staff. Other schools
considering this program are Princeton University, Cornell University,
Miami University (Ohio), Tulane University, the University of Virginia
and the College of William and Mary."
This announcement raises a number of questions (none of which were
satisfactorily answered when I looked through the Define the Line
website last night):
1) How do universities participate in the Define the Line "program"?
What does a participating university specifically promise to do?
2) What does the Business Software Alliance provide program
participants? How does participating in the program benefit a
university?
3) Why does the announcement mention schools that are *thinking* about
joining the program? The announcement says that the program is
launching, yet Marquette seems to be the only participant in the
launch.
I ask more questions, and deconstruct the Define the Line website, at
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2005/05/marquette_joins.htm.
Eric.
--
Eric Goldman
Marquette University Law School
egoldman@xxxxxxxxx
Personal website: http://www.ericgoldman.org
Blogs: http://blog.ericgoldman.org and http://blog.ericgoldman.org/
personal/
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