|
Falling Temperatures and the DC Fallout
St. Louis apparently hasn't gotten the memo that it's in the south yet, since it's still pretty chilly here. That doesn't bode well for the first softball game of the season, scheduled at 9 PM tonight. I used to have baseball practice in high school in February, and a miserable time was had by all who participated. And our practices were in the late afternoon, not after dark.
The most amazing things to me in the aftermath of the great Direct Connect shutdown are:
a) Most WashU students had no idea what they were using, saying things like "the school shut down Direct Connect". Direct Connect is a peer-to-peer file sharing program. While the school may have forced the creator of the WashU hub to take it down, Direct Connect itself is a program and has not been shut down.
b) Unfortunately for the RIAA, the problem still exists that most people don't view downloading copyrighted materials as a crime. No sane student would admit to a reporter that they murdered someone or committed arson, but even now they will post to their LiveJournals about how much they loved downloading mp3s on DC. The random lawsuits are obviously not working to change the mindset that it is somehow our right as humans to steal music, software, and movies.
c) This Chesky girl, who was quoted in the RF Times article about the WashU hub, is our school's Steve Bartman. She did what any other naive freshman would have done, that is brag to someone about how they have access to any song they'd ever want, yet somehow she is being blamed for everything. If she hadn't bragged about breaking the Digital Millennium Act, countless other students would have.
d) WashU students don't vote for their own Student Union or CS40 representatives or care about politics in the least, but when it comes to their own unalienable right to steal, all of a sudden everyone is an activist.
Comments
She lives right down the hall from my sister, and apparently there have been angry mobs and vandalism aimed at her. People are stupid.
Posted by: light at February 26, 2004 12:34 PM
Yeah, I heard there was a WUPD person stationed outside her door on Sunday. The same thing happened at University of Maryland and it was even worse, as the student filed assault charges against someone. College kids are spoiled rotten.
Posted by: Chris Hill Festival at February 26, 2004 12:38 PM
|
