The Morals of a Weasel

Thanks to RIAA general council and, at the time, Penn State Trustee Barry Robinson, Graham took an early interest in illegal file sharing as the first co-chairman of the Joint Committee of Higher Education and Entertainment Communities. Graham saw, or at least portrayed, P2P file sharing as moral issue.

Yet despite these educational efforts, despite our compliance with DMCA, and despite our technical interventions, it is probably fair to say that thousands of our students illegally download some amount of copyrighted material. They are typical of college students nationally in this regard and are party to a practice that is morally wrong, is damaging to the entertainment industry, and is inconsistent with the values of honesty and integrity that students more typically profess.

One of Graham's last acts before relinquishing his co-chairmanship was to lend his name and visage to an hilarious RIAA scare-video.

What Graham didn't see as morally questionable was the bullying of students by the RIAA which has threaten numerous lawsuits against students that they have identified as illegally downloading music, but has only taken one suit to trial. The obvious moral position for Graham would have been to stand up early to the RIAA thugs, but he would rather stand by his crony on the BOT than do the right thing.

Now the RIAA has made a move that only the most obtuse would fail to see as thuggish act.

...[H]ardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry's lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

It is now time to get Congress to act. The DMCA must be revised to stop this sort of behavior on the part of the RIAA.

Oh and now Graham might even see this way. He has signed a letter concerning another matter with respect to the RIAA.

This entertainment industry proposal which may be under consideration by the House Education and Labor Committee would establish the Secretary of Education as an agent of the entertainment industry by requiring the Secretary annually to create a list of the 25 colleges and universities with the highest levels of unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, based on data supplied by the industry. The list of the top 25 violators provides no logical basis for initiating federal action. It does not reflect a universal census of violations, nor even an appropriately designed random sample of violations. Rather,
the entertainment industry gets to decide who is a "violator." The entertainment industry assuredly would make these choices to maximize the political and deterrent impact, but the fact remains that the 25 colleges or universities so identified would be designated by the entertainment industry. The Secretary would be required, under the language of the proposal, to act on the entertainment industry's information and direction. This clearly is an inappropriate role for a Cabinet officer of the Federal government.

As we all should know, if you don't stop a bully before he gets you in his sights he'll eventually come after you. But for Graham this was never really about moralityor doing the right thing. It was about looking out for his narrow self-interest. When that interest called for him to side with the RIAA, he willing did. Now it calls for him to oppose the RIAA and he has. This is the essence of the character of Graham: high rhetoric and weaselly actions.

Pushing the Boundaries Not of Knowledge, But of Acceptable Behavior: The Penn State Way

From today's Collegian comes news that Penn State has infringed on a trademark held by the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL. The term "White Out" which refers to fans attending sporting events decked out in white was originated by the hockey team in 1987 when they were the Winnipeg Jets. The team notified the University last year that the use of the phrase by Penn State was a trademark infringement, but agreed to allow the University to use the phrase once this year. So, Penn State decided to modify the phrase to "White House". Guess what? According to Steve Weinreich, vice president of general counsel for the Phoenix Coyotes,

[A]ny variation on the term for marketing purposes is "in violation of the law," restricting certain posters, advertisements and garments around campus.

"As of last year, when we spoke with representatives from the university, they understood that they could use it one time," he said. "We had an agreement, and now they are apparently not living up to what they say."

The fact that Penn State isn't living up to its end of the agreement shouldn't come as any surprise to my readers. There is a long list of deals which Penn State has reneged on. The most notable is the deal which guaranteed that the Dickinson School of Law would remain in Carlisle in perpetuity. There is also the, as of yet unresolved, court case brought against Penn State by Centre County which claims that Penn State isn't living up to its end of an in-lieu-of-tax agreement. For Penn State it isn't about what is right, it is about what it can get away with. You don't think so? Greg Myford, associate athletic director of marketing tells us as much.

Trademark or not, Myford said a "White Out" is an object of school spirit, rather than a legally owned commodity.

"Frankly, our students and fans have already taken ownership of the term, so even if Penn State were not able to use the phrase legally, simply planting the seed with students to wear white at a designated game would be enough to get them spreading the word of an upcoming White Out," Myford said.

Of course, there is also the matter of hypocrisy in this story, an important component of the Penn State Way, which ,to her credit, Collegian reporter Lauren Boyer takes note of.

Weinreich said the term "White Out" is also a part of his company's legacy and equated it to another team calling themselves the "Nittany Lions" and bearing the same blue-and-white logo. In fact, this happened recently when a Morganton, N.C., high school was called out by the Collegiate Licensing Company for bearing an emblem "confusingly similar" to Penn State's trademarked lion head.

But Myford said the future use of "Penn State White Out" is different than the recent controversy surrounding the trademark infringing by the high school. "Them using our logo is basically someone else using copyrighted or trademarked material that has already been granted to someone else," he said. "Us using 'White Out' is making a claim for Penn State to be granted use of the term because the term currently isn't spoken for."

Why anyone has still has any pride in this university is beyond me.

Update: I almost forgot that Graham has been a strong voice in opposition to P2P file sharing of music on campuses and has often said that it is the responsibility of colleges and universities to teach students about the morality and legality of such activity. For example,

For colleges and universities, the decision in Grokster can be both a catalyst for renewed attention as well as a wake-up call to those colleges and universities that have yet to engage the issue. Specifically, we suggest that administrators consider the following:

Inform students of their moral and legal responsibilities to respect the rights of copyright owners.

Or this,

Yet despite these educational efforts, despite our compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and despite our technical interventions, it is probably fair to say that thousands of our students illegally download some amount of copyrighted material.

They are typical of college students nationally in this regard and are party to a practice that is morally wrong, is damaging to the entertainment industry, and is inconsistent with the values of honesty and integrity that students more typically profess.

This is just more of the Penn State Way.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Football, hypocrisy, bad faith
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Behind the Propaganda Curtain

This is a follow-up of my earlier post about the unintentionally funny RIAA scare video. As I noted in that post, Spanier embarrasses Penn State with his appearance in the video. The propaganda portal Penn State Live recently featured a press release concerning the video. Here is the lede from the release.

In November 2003 Penn State kicked off a nationwide movement among colleges and universities to offer legal music downloading services to students. Now, three years later, the University Park campus is featured in parts of a new Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) video on the subject, available for viewing at http://www.campusdownloading.psu.edu/ online.

Nary a mention of Spanier here or in the entire release. In fact, the only Penn State administrator quoted in the release is Sam Haldeman, the Napster program coordinator for the University's Information Technology Services office, who is at best a mid level bureaucrat. Since as we all know Spanier is a publicity hog, I take this as evidence that Spanier wants to disassociate himself from this debacle.

Now you may say that if this were so, the University would have simply ignored the video. However, since Spanier is in the pocket of the RIAA that is not an option. In addition simply hoping that no one notices is not Penn State's approach to damage control. Here is how Penn State flack Bill Mahon explains it.

A different situation faces such schools as Penn State, so well known nationally and with so many far-flung alumni that what happens -- good or bad -- gets magnified attention.[...]

When it happens, "just communicate as much as possible, as quickly as you can," said Mr. Mahon, assistant vice president for university relations. "For one thing, you're not going to hide it, and there's no reason to hide it.

"You might as well put it out first."

Penn State tries to put it out first and, of course, hopes that their spin will become conventional wisdom.

Reefer Madness Redux

The RIAA, the folks that are suing the hell out of college kids who download music for free or those who may enable them, has come out with a scare video which is reminiscent of the old VD scare movies of the 1950's and 1960's. It even includes a warning about infecting ones computer with viruses as a result of promiscuous downloading. To the embarrassment of Penn State, Graham Spanier, in his role as corporate shill, makes a cameo appearance in this hilarious video which is destine to become a cult classic in the vein of Reefer Madness.
Update: Jannuary 2, 2008. Funny thing, the the above link to the scare video once took you to a Penn State RIAA URL with a streaming video. Now the link takes you to a RIAA URL with only a video preview. I guess Graham wanted to hide his performance from the public everyone was embarrassed by the thing. Not to worry, the video is on YouTube.