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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM | NEWS | WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2007
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Kansan to resume publication Aug. 13
This is the last issue of The University Daily Kansan for the summer semester. The annual Back to School edition will run Aug. 13. That edition will be available on campus, and will also be
delivered to all on-campus housing units and numerous apartment complexes.
— Kansas staff report
The Kansan will resume regular daily publication on Aug.16.
Students receive tuition relief post-disasters
The University announced that it will offer students from 10 of the Kansas counties hit hardest by natural disasters during the past few months an option to defer tuition payments for the fall semester.
Students who are eligible for individual federal assistance from five storm-damaged counties, Edwards, Kiowa, Osage, Pratt and Stafford, and five flooded counties, Elk, Miami, Montgomery, Neosho and Wilson, are eligible for the University's offer.
Todd Cohen, director of University relations, said that the University is offering the deferred payments to do whatever it can to help residents from the counties designated as disaster areas by the governor.
"We know that they have more
important things to worry about like getting a household back together than making tuition payments," Cohen said.
Usually, a $100 fine is given to students who have not paid their tuition by the deadline, which this year is Aug. 15. Additional penalties are then levied against students for each month that their bill goes unpaid.
Cohen added that under the deferred payment option offered to students from the disaster areas, the University will work out payment schedules based on each student's individual needs.
The University has implemented similar plans in the past to assist students whose hometowns have been damaged by natural disasters. Most recently, a similar offer was given to students from the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Joe Caponio
CAMPUS
University won't release names to recording industry
By Maggie VanBuskirk
mvanbuskirk@kansan.com
The University is refusing to forward pre-litigation letters from the recording industry to it's students on the grounds that doing so could be an invasion of student privacy.
Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America sent 408 pre-litigation settlement letters to 23 universities. The University of Kansas will notify individual students by mail if it received a complaint connected to a student's IP address. The University will not, however, forward students the RIAA pretitigation letter, which gives them the opportunity to settle out of court.
Spokesman says KU will not be third party in legal cases
Jenny Mehmedovic, coordinator for information and technology policy and planning, said under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the University has no obligation to forward the letters to students. It also will not release any identifying information without a court order or subpoena.
Does the threat of legal action stop you from downloading? Vote online.
@ KANSAN.COM
receives a complaint. It sends the appropriate user a letter from the University notifying them of the problem.
Mehmedovic said the University operates by an internal process of response when it
According to the safe harbor provision of the DMCA, Internet service providers like the University, are not to be held liable for customers' online activity if they immediately remove or disable a user's access to identified material in a copyright infringement complaint.
right infringement.
In past years, the University operated a "three-strikes" policy, in which students were alotted three warnings about
Todd Cohen, director of University Relations, said the first responsibility
of the University is to protect the privacy of its network users and notify users of the problem and the rules.
"My understanding is that the University's best practices view point is to protect its students and show compliance to the rules but not act as a legal agent."
"My understanding is that the University's best practices view point is to protect its students and show compliance to to act as a legal
TODD COHEN University Relations
their illegal activity before getting their Internet privileges revoked. This fall, the University is enacting a zero tolerance policy, where students lose Internet access on the first notice of copy-
the rules but not to act as a legal agent," Cohen said.
—Edited by Ben Smith