-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Interesting Development: Marquette and BSA Join Forces Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 09:20:36 -0500 From: Eric Goldman <egoldman@private> Reply-To: Eric Goldman <egoldman@private> To: declan@private 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@private Personal website: http://www.ericgoldman.org Blogs: http://blog.ericgoldman.org and http://blog.ericgoldman.org/personal/ _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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