The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2007 Page: 1 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 19 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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resher
Vol. XCIV, Issue No. 5
SINCE 1916
Friday, September 21, 2007
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YOU CAST YOUR BALLOT.
SEE HOW IT FELL.
BitTorrent
sites banned
by Rice IT
by IJly Chun
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
Students were concerned at the begin-
ning of the semester that BitTorrent was
blocked on the Rice Owls wireless network.
However, Vice Provost of Information
Technology Kamran Khan said BitTorrent
itself was not blocked, but rather sites that
can be accessed to download files through
BitTorrent were blocked.
Information Security Officer Marc Scar-
borough said these sites were banned because
the content of the sites were almost entirely
pirated. The illegal and malicious content on
the sites could get the university in trouble,
Scarborough said.
"What students are saying is they can no
longer use BitTorrent applications to access
some of the sites that really have nothing
other than malicious or illegal content,"
Scarborough said. "But BitTorrent itself has
a lot of very legitimate uses for it."
Brown College senior Chris Jackson said
the change came as an unwelcome surprise.
"I used it during O-Week. and once school
started, it was restricted all of a sudden,"Jack-
son said. "I was thinking, 'Why would they do
this?' They didn't post anything about it, and
they didn't tell us why they did it."
Jackson said IT blocked major
torrent sites like Pirate Bay, Iso-Hunt and
Torrent Spy.
Scarborough said IT has also re-
duced bandwidth for BitTorrent in the
past couple of years because of com-
plaints from entertainment industries. IT
reduced the bandwidth for BitTorrent even
more at the beginning of last semester be-
cause of the increased intensity with which
entertainment industries were pursuing of-
fenders. In the summer of2005. Rice received
a subpoena from the Recording Industry
Association of America for the first time.
Additionally, Khan said there was
a nation-wide spike December in the
number of infringement notices that
entertainment industries sent to univer-
sities. In November 2006, Rice received
five complaints. In December 2006, the
number increased to 28 complaints. In
January 2007, Rice received a staggering 84
complaints — more than fifteen times the
number of complaints in November.
"We received those complaints and sub-
poenas, and we are legally required to respond
to them," Scarborough said.
In addition to having to deal with industry
lawyers, Scarborough said IT had to resolve
see SITES, page 5
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MICHAEL ROG/THRESHER
Getting past wad blocks
A student walks across the new permeable-concrete sidewalk between College Way Road and Hanszen College. The first sidewalk
was not built correctly, causing parts of the pathway to crumble. The pathway was dismantled Tuesday and re-built Wednesday.
mtvU to be added to campus TV listings
New channel will provide alternative to MTV by catering to collegiate viewers and
focusing on upstart artists, but will it compete with Rice's own student-run RTV5?
by Caroline May
THRESHER STAFF
mtvU, an MTV owned 24-hour
television channel that focuses on
the college-age demographic, will
soon become part of Rice's standard
cable lineup.
intvU is a prepackaged channel
that MTV is offering Rice for free in
a year-long trial period.
MTV and Rice Information Tech-
nology are currently working out
the final details of the contract. The
station is not expected to get onto
the channel line-up until much later
in the semester, Student Association
President Laura Kelley said.
Late last year, MTV offered Rice
the opportunity to add mtvU to
its conventional television line-up.
Kelley said. After deliberation among
administrative staff and student leaders,
Rice agreed to a one-year trial period
with mtvU. mtvU is not specifically tai-
lored to Rice students, but it will provide
Rice with 15-20 seconds of advertising
time each hour to run campus-wide an-
nouncements.
mtvU will focus on up-and-coming
artists in an endeavor to provide an alter-
native to its mother station MTV. It will
feature shows focused on student con-
cerns, such as scholarship opportuni-
ties, student activism, student submitted
films and news and music MTV considers
appealing to college students. mtvU will
also feature programming such as "Sex
Cred with Dr. Ruth," "Professors Strike
Back" and "Stand-In."
mtvU is currently on an estimated
750 college campuses, according to
the network's Web site. Campuses that
allow MTV and its advertisers access
to their students via mtvuU could po-
tentially be featured on an mtvU show
or promotion, such as having programs
filmed at Rice.
"I think it's good [that mtvU is show-
ing music videos] especially since a lot of
us are into that kind of stuff and maybe
it will help some new and upcoming
artists that need more publicity to get
out," Wiess College freshman Adrian
Frimpong said. "I think it might give
people who don't listen to all kinds of
music more exposure to different kinds
of music."
RTV5 Station Manager Dan Derozier
said he was was not concerned about
the introduction of mtvU on campus
because the content of the two channels
is very different.
INSIDE
You 're on the Prez's clock Preparing for a crisis The other Bush
Got a concern you want to address
with the president? President Leebron will
conduct "open door" office hours Tuesday
between 3 and 4 p.m. in his office in the Allen
Center. No appointments are necessary.
Message from the registrar
Today is the last day to drop courses
online without a fee, complete late
registration or add courses, designate a
course Audit or vice versa, and change
or adjust variable credit for variable
credit courses.
Rice's Crisis Management Team
plans to test the MIR3 emergency
notification system today at noon. The
system enables Rice to communicate
through a number of mediums to
members of the community. Students
and staff have been asked to provide
emergency contact information through
their Esther account so they can be
kept informed in the case of an emer-
gency. The trial run will include a test
of phone numbers and e-mail addresses
provided by nearly 4000 members of the
Rice community.
Former governor Jeb Bush delivers the
first in a number of lectures at the Baker
InstituteTuesay at 5 p.m. The Global Issues
I^ecture Series aims to foster dialogue on the
role of international trade and commerce for
development in emerging countries.
OPINION
No Jews at 80's?
Page 3
A&E Page 14
Science Museum treasures
SPORTS Page 17
Women crushing competition
Quote of the Week
"Let's face the facts of life: There are things
you can do and can't do."
Kamran Khan, Vice Provost of IT
Scoreboard
Volleyball
Rice 2, Stephen F. Austin 3
Soccer
Houston Baptist 0, Rice 2
Weekend Weather
Friday
Sunny. 69-92 degrees
Saturday
Mostly Sunny. 72-93 degrees
Sunday
Scattered T-storms, 70-88 degrees
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 21, 2007, newspaper, September 21, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443102/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.