the news in brief

(U-WIRE) DURHAM, N.C. – Students facing copyright infringement suits related to music… (U-WIRE) DURHAM, N.C. – Students facing copyright infringement suits related to music downloading might have new legal alternatives.

A recent court case called into question one of the Recording Industry Association of America’s main legal arguments used to justify its prosecution of alleged music pirates.

A U.S. District Court in Connecticut ruled last month in Atlantic v. Brennan that making copyrighted works available on the Internet does not, by itself, constitute copyright infringement.

In her opinion, Judge Janet Bond Arterton wrote that plaintiffs in copyright infringement cases must establish both that they own the copyright and that the copyrighted works were indeed duplicated and not just made available.

Arterton ruled that the RIAA failed to do this because it offered no evidence that defendant Christopher Brennan, a senior at Boston University, had actually distributed the copyrighted works in question.

This decision may have implications for cases currently pending against students at other universities. Last Friday, a motion to dismiss the RIAA’s charges against Christopher Vines, an Indiana University sophomore, cited the ruling in Atlantic v. Brennan.

But the debate is not over just yet. Friday, the RIAA submitted a motion for reconsideration of the ruling in Atlantic v. Brennan. The motion states that every court that has ruled on the issue has held that making copyrighted materials available constitutes infringement. – Donnie Allison, The Chronicle (Duke)

(U-WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky. – U. Kentucky has earned international attention because of a false rumor that has simply refused to disappear.

The e-mail rumor claimed that UK stopped offering a Holocaust class because it offended the Muslim population.

The e-mails referred to the United Kingdom, but when that became shortened to UK, readers mistook it for the university, said UK spokesman Jay Blanton. That led some of the public to send a chain of messages to the UK administration even though history professor Jeremy D. Popkin teaches History 323: The Holocaust, as part of the university’s Judaic Studies Program.

The rumors started around April 2007, Blanton said, and began to pick up around November, which led to the university sending out a news release in an effort to dispel the claims.

Because of easy access to the Internet, the rumor has become so widespread that no matter how much UK tries to debunk the message, the allegations remain, Blanton said.

Although UK has sent replies to the e-mails it receives and will continue to try to inform people who do not know the rumor is false, Blanton said the administration can only send out so many e-mails.

Since then, several media outlets, including local newspapers in Kentucky and across the United States, The New York Times and BBC News, have reported on the rumor. – Calvin Hobson, Kentucky Kernel (U. Kentucky)

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES – At the national college newspaper convention in San Francisco last Friday, Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, introduced new legislation that would make it illegal for administrators to discipline high school and college journalism advisers based on content published in school newspapers.

Adam Keigwin, the assistant president pro tem for Yee’s office, said Senate Bill 1370 was an extension of a bill Yee introduced two years ago that specifically prohibited prior restraint by administrators toward student publications.

According to a press release, the state senate will consider the bill in March. If passed, SB 1370 would make it illegal to fire, transfer, re-assign or discipline a journalism teacher or adviser for acting in the interest of free student speech.

Keigwin said public school administrators who were uncomfortable with views or opinions expressed in student newspapers had attempted to reassign, discipline and even fire faculty advisers who stood up for the students’ right to free speech.

“This year, we’ve heard of administrators going after the faculty as a result of student speech … Inevitably, that is threatening free speech and the student’s right,” Keigwin said. – Tulika Bose, Daily Bruin (UCLA)