TRICKY BLOCKING METHODS

3/2/00 - SAUC was informed from many University of IOWA students of the universities obscure method of banning Napster. The following is testimony from an anonymous student. I went to a lab I don't normally use. These computers like all others on campus are locked down, and all apps. are distributed over Novell. I downloaded the Napster installer at this lab (to make sure this was actually a campus wide occurrence), and I got the same results. This confirms to me that it is a focused effort by the IT department to limit Napster's usage. When you try to open napv2b5.exe you get a Novell Broadcast message saying, "License NAPSTER is unavailable." If I rename napv2b5.exe to napv2b6.exe it will allow me to execute the file and install. This is a big indication on how the various universities are being evasive about this issue. SAUC would like to communicate with the universities around the nation and try to resolve this issue so that all university students can access Napster and still comply with the universities "fair use policy". Question is, how deep does the RIAA have their nose into this issue? More to come on that tomorrow. Petition count: 8,050

NETWORKING 2000 CONFERENCE

3/2/00 - Chad Paulson, founder of SAUC is slated to be a speaker and panel member for the Networking 2000 Conference. The Net conferences have for many years provided the premier forum for higher education information technology leaders to gather to discuss policy and practical issues associated with advancing networking technologies and usage, and to launch and report on major initiatives. The Net 2000 conference will bring together leaders from higher education and federal, regional, and state governments to review and evaluate network policy issues, emerging network applications, and the organizational, institutional, and economic opportunities posed by UCAID/Internet2, NGI, and related network development efforts. This is a perfect way for SAUC to discuss and deal with the issues with university and federal policy makers. The conference will be held on March 30-31 in Washington D.C.