| Listen Legally by Lindsey Diamond
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Think twice before illegally sharing or downloading songs over
the Internet. Is it worth risking the possibility of being charged
$1.92 million? Didn’t think so.
In June 2009, a federal court ruled that a Minnesota woman
must pay $1.92 million for illegally sharing 24 songs on the
music site Kazaa. Though the jury for her case decided on a
fine of $80,000 per track, individuals may be charged up to
$150,000 for each track illegally shared over any Internet site.
Illegal file sharing, or online piracy, is treated as a serious
crime because it is. When you download an artist’s music,
it is as if you are stealing his or her information without
having any legal right to it.
The issue of illegal file sharing is taken very seriously
on our campus as well. In an open letter to the university community,
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Nariman Farvardin
and Vice President and Chief Information Officer Jeffrey C.
Huskamp emphasized the personal risks to individuals involved
in illegal file sharing on campus.
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They warn that “the risks involve not only the possibility
of campus disciplinary or personnel action, but also the possibility
of criminal prosecution and the initiation of civil litigation
by copyright holders.” With the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA) filing thousands of claims against individuals
using peer-to-peer file sharing applications (including notifying
Maryland of their intention to file 38 cases against university
community members), illegal file sharing has become increasingly
monitored, with the goal of discouraging participation.
The good news is that you don’t have to participate in
illegal file sharing to add to your music collection —
there are plenty of legal sources for music, movies, and TV
shows on the Internet. Some are even free! To learn about some
of your legal options, visit www.nethics.umd.edu/resources/
factsheets/musicserviceoptions.htm. To find out more about
the issues surrounding copyright infringement and online piracy,
please visit www.oit.umd.edu/PlayFair.
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Mobility Pilot Group
Finishes First Year
By Barbara Hope and Fred Morris
Through a partnership among OIT, the Office of the Provost, and the
Office of Undergraduate Admissions, 134 freshmen in the Banneker/Key
Scholarship and Maryland Incentive Awards programs participated in
a wide variety of activities during the first year of the university’s
Mobility Initiative. The goal was to examine and assess the value
of mobile computing platforms in classroom instruction, learning,
and students’ social growth.
Given either an Apple iPod touch or iPhone, students tried out a
number of customized applications — software that enabled their
device to be used as a classroom clicker, a series of informational
and location service modules named MyeVyu, and a mobile version of
MyUM, the university’s customizable Web portal. Additional pilot
program activities included a campus history lesson in the form of
a scavenger hunt utilizing the GPS and Web search capabilities of
the devices, numerous assessment focus groups, and interactive demonstrations
in online search techniques. The first year also saw involvement by
faculty from Computer Science, Psychology, University Honors, and
the iSchool.
For the second year of the pilot, an additional 146 freshmen have
joined the program. Along with examining how these devices best complement
and enhance the student university experience, focus will also be
directed to the impact of using mobile technologies from the instructor’s
point of view. Several faculty members are incorporating mobile learning
in their fall 2009 classes. In-house development of additional customized
applications is underway as is consultation with colleges and departments
looking to adopt mobile devices and methods in their courses.
Please visit www.mobility.umd.edu for more information about the
Mobility Initiative.
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SGA Mailing List Subscription Management Tool
By Skip Warnick
| At the request of Linda Clement,
Vice President of Student Affairs, OIT was asked to develop
a Web application that would allow students to easily subscribe
to and unsubscribe from a set of mailing lists used by Student
Government Association (SGA) legislators to communicate with
their constituents.
A two-semester pilot beginning this fall will allow Student
Affairs and SGA leaders to determine the effectiveness of this
approach to communicating with constituents. It is hoped that
this new service will fill a communications void for SGA legislators
who have had limited electronic means of directly communicating
with their constituents prior to this effort.
The SGA is excited about the project. “The mailing list
will allow our organization to communicate with our constituents
easier than ever before,”
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said SGA President Steve Glickman.
“I look forward to incorporating it into our communications
strategy over the next year.”
This one-stop mailing list shopping experience should allow
for better communications to a targeted, interested audience.
Users opt in, therefore, the messages sent cannot be considered
by recipients as spam. Anyone with a Directory ID can subscribe
to one or all of the available lists, allowing for all interested
parties to stay abreast of SGA happenings. If users forget which
lists they are subscribed to, they can visit the Web site and
follow the appropriate link to have a self-addressed e-mail
generated containing all of their current subscriptions.
For more information and to sign up for SGA mailing lists,
visit www.sga.umd.edu.
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TechKnow
is the Information Technology Newsletter for University of Maryland
students, published by the Office of
Information Technology. Letters to the editor and story suggestions
are welcome. Please send correspondence to TechKnow@umd.edu.