THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2007
NEWS 13A
RESIDENCE HALLS
KU enacts new Internet policy
BY MAGGIE VANBUSKIRK
mvanbuskirk@okansan.com
You might want to think twice before downloading copyrighted material on campus this fall.
The University of Kansas adopted a zero tolerance approach for illegal downloads and file shares of copyrighted material. Any student found participating in such activities on campus will immediately have his or her personal Internet privileges revoked. The University is not actively pursuing or monitoring student computer activity. However, if the University receives a copyright
infringement complaint from an artist or corporation it has a moral and legal responsibility to respond.
"It is the brutal truth. If you download material without an artist's permission, it is against the law," said
Mehmedovic,
The new approach is outlined in the KU ResNet Responsible Use Agreement. All students living in university housing must read and acknowledge that they have read the agreement before getting access to the University's network. Students also must take a quiz over the agreement and downloading regulations.
The University is following steps outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that say Internet providers must take immediate action when notified that one of their network users is downloading illegally.
"It is the brutal truth, if you download material without an artist's permission it is against the law. We have an obligation to take action."
JENNY MEHMEDOVIC IT policy and planning coordinator
lenny Mehmedovic, coordinator for information and technology policy and planning. "We have an obligation to take action."
DMCA agent for the KU Lawrence campus, said if the University received a notice from an outside organization that implicated a machine was illegally using its copyrighted material, it would respond immediately.
Students participating in the illegal activity are identified through the registered IP address linked to the complaint.
Students who receive notices will have their ResNet accounts suspended for five business days.
the department of Student Housing and the KU Parents Association. Additional staff training also was
During this time students can file an appeal to the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Success. If the appeal is denied, the student loses Internet access in their residence room for the remainder of the time he or she lives in Unive. city housing. Students whose privileges are revoked will be able to use computers in campus libraries and other facilities as well as in residence hall resource rooms.
According to Mehmedovic, last year the University had anywhere from 30 complaints in a single day to less than one complaint in an entire week.
"We are really trying to help pave the way so that there are no surprises," Mehmedovic said. "We want incoming students to be well aware of the new approach so they are not in the situation where they lose their Internet privileges in their residence hall room."
According to the Office of Student Success, the zero tolerance approach was mentioned in new student orientation and described in letters to parents and students from
placed in each residence hall dormitory room.
In the fall of 2006,4,542 students registered for Internet access through ResNet. According to Mehmedovic.
last year the University had anywhere from 30 complaints in a single day to less than one complaint in an entire week. They come from entertainment representatives such as the Motion Picture Association of America, BusinessSoftware Alliance, Recording Industry Association of America and the Interactive Digital Music Corporation.
The number of complaints has risen over the years, but that does not mean the amount of illegal downloads has increased. Mehmedovic said it was possible the entertainment industry was just more aggressively perusing illegal use of its material.
Edited by Trevan McGee
CAMPUS
Five-year funding plan will provide KU with $25 M
BY MAGGIE VANBUSKIRK
mvanbuskirk@kansan.com
After a deferred maintenance bill was passed by the Kansas House in April, the University submitted a proposal of how it will spend the additional funding for campus repairs to the Board of Regents. The board reviewed the proposal in its June meeting.
The deferred maintenance bill provides a five-year funding plan that will begin in the 2008 fiscal year. Throughout the duration of the plan, $90 million will be distributed for campus repairs at the University and five other state universities.
"The five-year plan is prioritized," Modig said. "With the initial five
According to Jim Modig, director of design and construction management, the University expects to receive $25 million during the five years of the plan. It will receive $9.9 million the first year.
years of funding we plan to make improvements on the tunnels and 11 buildings"
The University proposed to use funding for tunnel repairs and mechanical improvements in Wescoe Hall and Haworth Hall during the first year of the plan. That includes new air handling units in Wescoe and new exhaust hoods in Haworth's labs. Modig said the tunnels, which are a century old and provide heat to campus buildings, will either be replaced or repaired.
Funding from the deferred maintenance bill comes from the Statewide Maintenance and Disaster Relief Fund. It could be available to the University in August to hire consultants for the design and construction of repairs. By Spring 2008, Modig said, he hoped the University would have bids for all the year's projects.
— Edited by Joe Caponio
》 ENVIRONMENT
BY SUDHIN THANAWALA
Associated Press
ARVIN, Calif. — Lying in a rich agricultural region dotted with vineyards and orange groves, this central California community seems an unlikely place for a dubious distinction: the most polluted air in America.
Hemmed in by mountains, Arvin is the final destination for pollutants from cities as far away as San Francisco Bay, and its wheezing residents are paying the price. Many of them complain that the air smells toxic.
"It's common for people here to say, 'I'm going to the beach so I can breathe,'" said Raji Brar, a councilwoman and member of the board that oversees the San Joaquin Valley's Air Pollution Control District.
Arvin has none of the smokebelching factories or congested freeways of cities such as Los Angeles. In fact, it produces little pollution. But the pollutants that blow in from elsewhere get trapped by the mountains, causing airborne particles to coat homes and streets and blot out views of the nearby Teachahapi range on hot summer days.
Doctors and public officials say asthma and other respiratory problems are common among the 15,000 residents who live 20 miles southeast of Bakersfield. People complain of watery eyes, dry throats and inexplicable coughs, particularly in the summer, when temperatures can climb over 100 degrees and stay there for days.
Arvin's level of ozone, the primary component in smog, exceeded the amount considered acceptable by the EPA on an average of 73 days per year between 2004 and 2006. Second on the EPA's list was the Southern California town of Crestline, at 65 days. The San Francisco Bay Area averaged just
four days over the same period.
"Sometimes you go outside and can hardly breathe," said Irma Garza, 48, who has lived here most of her life. "The worst part is in the summertime you can't send your kids outside to play."
Despite the health complaints, the valley's air-quality board voted in April to extend by 11 years the region's deadline to meet federal ozone standards, saying cleaning up the air by the previous target date of 2012 was not possible. Brar, the city council member, voted against that decision.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized the move when the California Air Resources Board voted in June to approve the local board's extension. A few days later, he fired the board's chairman.
The EPA is now considering the extension.
Brar and other local officials say Arvin has been neglected by smog regulators because its residents are mostly poor, Hispanic farmworkers.
Seyed Sadredin, executive director of the valley air district, denied that and said he is trying to improve the board's efforts in the town.
"Everything we've done here is for Arvin," he said. "But unfortunately, Arvin will see progress later than any other area because that's where pollution flushes out of the valley."
Air conditioning is a luxury many residents cannot afford, said Amalia Leal, a family advocate with the local school district. Without the skills or resources to relocate, many families are trapped in Arvin.
In the meantime, residents make small adjustments to reduce their exposure to the dirty air.
But her advice to parents with chronically asthmatic children is simple.
"Move," she said. "If you love your child, move."
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CRIME
action in which women and children were among the dead.
The decision to drop charges against the two Marines follows earlier recommendations by investigating officers who listened to evidence against them, though it was recommended that Stone face an administrative hearing.
of Canonsburg, Pa., was charged with murdering three brothers. Capt. Randy Stone, 35, a battalion lawyer from Dunkirk, Md., was charged with failing to adequately report and investigate the Nov. 19, 2005, combat
JUSTIN L. SHAARRATT
Lance Cpl.
"Where the enemy disregards any attempt to comply with ethical norms of warfare, we exercise discipline and restraint to protect the innocent caught on the battlefield," Mattis wrote in his letter to Sharratt.
LOS ANGELES — All charges have been dismissed against two Marines accused in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, the Marine Corps announced Thursday.
Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, 22.
In his decision to dismiss charges, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general with jurisdiction in the case, said he was sympathetic to the challenges Marines on the ground face in Iraq.
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Charges dropped against marines
Mattis met with Sharratt and Stone at Camp Pendleton early Thursday to tell them the charges were dismissed. Sharratt's mother, Theresa, said her
son called home immediately afterward.
"He says, 'Mom, it's over,'" she said. "Those are the words I couldn't wait to hear."
"Though I am glad I will be able to move on with my life,my heart is still heavy for my fellow Marines...who continue to face serious charges."
Theresa Sharratt said that her son's four-year enlistment ended last month, but that he had been kept in the service on a legal hold. He is now
free to become a civilian and may go back to school.
Sharratt's attorneys, Gary Myers and James Culp, released a brief statement from their client, who said he knew he had done nothing wrong.
"Though I am glad I will be able to move on with my life, my heart is still heavy for my fellow Marines ... who continue to face serious charges," Sharratt said in the statement.
Four enlisted Marines were initially charged with murder, and four officers were charged with failing to investigate. Prosecutors dropped charges against one of the enlisted men, Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz of Chicago, and gave him immunity to testify against his squad mates.
The central figure in the case remains squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wutierch of Meriden, Conn., who faces 18 counts of murder. He is scheduled to attend a preliminary hearing Aug. 22.
The other enlisted Marine, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum of Edmond, Okla., has attended a preliminary hearing, but no recommendation has been made about whether he should
stand trial for murder.
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani of Rangely, Colo., is the only other officer aside from Stone to attend an initial hearing, known as an Article 32 investigation. The investigator for Chessani recommended he face a general court-martial on charges of dereliction of duty for failing to investigate.
The two dozen Iraqis died after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, of El Paso, Texas, who was driving a Humvee.
In the aftermath of the blast, Marines shot a group of men by a car and cleared several houses with grenades and gunfire. The Marines have said they believed the houses were occupied by insurgents, but the victims included elderly people, women and children, including several who were slain in bed.
At his preliminary hearing in June.
Sharratt said he had helped clear several houses without incident. Then he noticed a group of Iraqi men looking at him suspiciously by a house close to where the bomb went off.
Along with three other Marines, including Wuterich,
Sharratt went to look for the men.
"Our nation is fighting a shadowy enemy who hides among the innocent people, does not comply with any aspect of the law of war, and routinely draws fire toward civilians."
Stone was the lawyer for the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines who taught troops about combat law and rules of engagement. The investigating officer at Stone's hearing recommended dropping the charges against him but pursuing a lesser, administrative charge for failing to investigate.
different house, and Sharratt was not charged in their deaths.
Prosecutors alleged that Sharratt and other members of his squad did not properly identify their targets before opening fire, but Mattis concluded Sharratt acted within the rules of engagement.
"Our nation is fighting a shadowy enemy who hides among the innocent people, does not comply with any aspect of the law of war, and routinely draws fire toward civilians," Mattis wrote.
JAMES MATTIS Lt. Gen.
Prosecutors said Stone, a newcomer to the Marines who joined
Sharratt said he opened fire in the house because he saw an Iraqi point an AK-47 at him and heard another loading an AK-47 in an adjacent room.
The women and children died in a
the battalion in Iraq several weeks behind his comrades, overlooked the killings to curry favor with other Marines, rather than objectively reporting the deaths.
Again, Mattis found no fault in Stone's actions, and said the captain would continue to serve as a lawyer in the Marines.
"Stone's experience in this incident offers many hard learned lessons that I am confident will serve him well in the future." Mattis wrote in a statement.