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I'm not surprised a country like this has decided to join China by firewalling the outside world. They have a lot to lose (by their standards) and little to gain (again, by their standards) by allowing unfettered access. And since post-modern thought says that there is no truth, only differing points of view, who can disagree with this decision? No matter how you come down on the censorship debate, there is always another equally valid point of view on the opposite side.

I have never found a definition of "administrative withdrawal" in any University or Board of Regents document nor has anyone explained how I violated Board of Regents Policy 1902. http://www.usg.edu/regents/policymanual/1900.phtml

The University administration violated all established University and Board of Regents policies regarding disciplinary issues and policy on evaluation of potentially emotionally distressed students.

http://www.valdosta.edu/judicial/AppealsProcess.shtml
http://www.valdosta.edu/judicial/ConductViolations.shtml
http://www.valdosta.edu/judicial/RightsofStudent.shtml
http://www.valdosta.edu/judicial/HearingProcedure.shtml
http://www.valdosta.edu/judicial/OtherIssues.shtml

Hayden

The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. After backing out of a hearing procedure which they established to give an opportunity for due process, we filled a civil rights and discrimination lawsuit in Federal court.

It may be more effective to contact the Board of Regents at this point.

Office of the Chancellor
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Suite 7025
270 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
office: (404) 656-2202
fax: (404) 657-6979
email: chancellor@usg.edu

http://www.usg.edu/contact/
http://www.usg.edu/regents/members/

Join my Facebook group @ http://kennesaw.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6371166090

The story about the lawsuit has been heard across Georgia. Newspapers from Valdosta, Augusta, and Athens are reporting on the case. It's been discussed on television, radio, and Internet blogs. Prominent education journal "Inside Higher Ed" featured it on their front page.

http://mashable.com/2008/01/13/facebook-users-photo-led-to-expulsion-from-university/
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1664
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/01/10/Valdosta_State_Student_Says_Facebook_Opinion_Resulted_in_Expulsion_From_School.htm
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/011208/news_20080112030.shtml
http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/local/local_story_011142725.html
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8794.html
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8796.html
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7612384

The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. After backing out of a hearing procedure which they established to give an opportunity for due process, we filled a civil rights and discrimination lawsuit in Federal court.

It may be more effective to contact the Board of Regents at this point.

Office of the Chancellor
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Suite 7025
270 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
office: (404) 656-2202
fax: (404) 657-6979
email: chancellor@usg.edu

http://www.usg.edu/contact/
http://www.usg.edu/regents/members/

Join my Facebook group @ http://kennesaw.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6371166090

The story about the lawsuit has been heard across Georgia. Newspapers from Valdosta, Augusta, and Athens are reporting on the case. It's been discussed on television, radio, and Internet blogs. Prominent education journal "Inside Higher Ed" featured it on their front page.

http://mashable.com/2008/01/13/facebook-users-photo-led-to-expulsion-from-university/
http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1664
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/01/10/Valdosta_State_Student_Says_Facebook_Opinion_Resulted_in_Expulsion_From_School.htm
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/011208/news_20080112030.shtml
http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/local/local_story_011142725.html
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8794.html
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8796.html
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7612384

The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. After backing out of a hearing procedure which they established to give an opportunity for due process, we filled a civil rights and discrimination lawsuit in Federal court. It may be more effective to contact the Board of Regents at this point. Office of the Chancellor Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia Suite 7025 270 Washington Street, SW Atlanta, GA 30334 office: (404) 656-2202 fax: (404) 657-6979 email: chancellor@usg.edu http://www.usg.edu/contact/ http://www.usg.edu/regents/members/ Join my Facebook group @ http://kennesaw.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6371166090 The story about the lawsuit has been heard across Georgia. Newspapers from Valdosta, Augusta, and Athens are reporting on the case. It's been discussed on television, radio, and Internet blogs. Prominent education journal "Inside Higher Ed" featured it on their front page. http://mashable.com/2008/01/13/facebook-users-photo-led-to-expulsion-from-university/ http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1664 http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/01/10/Valdosta_State_Student_Says_Facebook_Opinion_Resulted_in_Expulsion_From_School.htm http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/011208/news_20080112030.shtml http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/local/local_story_011142725.html http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8794.html http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8796.html http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7612384

The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. After backing out of a hearing procedure which they established to give an opportunity for due process, we filled a civil rights and discrimination lawsuit in Federal court. It may be more effective to contact the Board of Regents at this point. Office of the Chancellor Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia Suite 7025 270 Washington Street, SW Atlanta, GA 30334 office: (404) 656-2202 fax: (404) 657-6979 email: chancellor@usg.edu http://www.usg.edu/contact/ http://www.usg.edu/regents/members/ Join my Facebook group @ http://kennesaw.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6371166090 The story about the lawsuit has been heard across Georgia. Newspapers from Valdosta, Augusta, and Athens are reporting on the case. It's been discussed on television, radio, and Internet blogs. Prominent education journal "Inside Higher Ed" featured it on their front page. http://mashable.com/2008/01/13/facebook-users-photo-led-to-expulsion-from-university/ http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1664 http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/01/10/Valdosta_State_Student_Says_Facebook_Opinion_Resulted_in_Expulsion_From_School.htm http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/011208/news_20080112030.shtml http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/local/local_story_011142725.html http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8794.html http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/8796.html http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7612384

You're the one making value judgements about monopolies here. Sometimes limited monopolies serve a purpose. This may or may not be one of those times. That's a good question to debate. What's not up for debate is the fact that copyright constitutes a monopoly on a given product. Yes Apples are commodities, copies of Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero" are a commodity too. Exclusive control to produce and distribute them is granted to Reznor['s label].

Why don't you read this guide from the Georgia board of regents? Here's a few good bits: "Since copyright is the grant of a limited monopoly in recorded knowledge...", "the copyright statute regulates the copyright monopoly it grants in order to maintain an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright holders and the rights of users;" "To summarize, copyright law means that: (1) copyright is a monopoly that provides authors the right to sell copies of their work; (2) the monopoly is regulated in the public interest"

This is from an institution trying to give its professors sound legal advice to keep them out of trouble. Not open source hippies. The fact is, copyright is a government granted monopoly. It is most definately not a natural right.

LOL! I was just about to direct you try learning the law, but I see you posted that link yourself. You've seen the law, but you have MISREAD it.

The law does not say information - the work - is owned. It says ownership of the copyright. Ownership of the right to sue infringers. A very important point of law is that the work itself or any copy of that work is an entirely different thing than the copyright to that work. That link deals extensively with that distinction.

It is physically impossible to steal a copyright. The closest you could get to "stealing" those rights would be to commit fraud in claiming ownership of those rights. The proper term for this is "slander of title".

As for saying copyright infringment is "theft", I direct you to the Supreme Court. Copyrigth infringment does not equate to theft.'

I also find it interesting how the court uses the phrase "intellectual property". It is the copyright itself which is "intellectual property", not the song or text or software.

The reason people argue over the use of the words "theft" and "property" is because people use them in the INVALID sense that information itself is "property". And when you think information is property you think property law applies. This leads to all sorts of legally invalid logic. You get silly arguments like someone "trespassing" on their own property - on their own copy - because someone else owns the copyright on the copy. Copyright law and patent law and trademark law are entirely different than property law. A big problem is the constant effort by lobbiests to turn it into property law. They are SUPPOSED to be different than property law, trying to make them the same just results in broken law.

And the really ugly part is they have spread so mouch misinformation on what copyright law is and how it works that many people - and many legislators - have been convinced that the law already says what the lobbists would like the law to say. It's very easy to get legislators to fundamentally change the law when they think that's what the law already says. And when they do realize the law didn't already say that, they have the mistaken impression that there is some error with the law. Good copyright law is SUPPOSED to be different than property law.

Copyright infringment is certainly copyright infringment. But if you try to apply a "theft" mind set to it you bring in an entire model of law that does not actually apply. You start thinking certain things are illegal that aren't. And when you discover they aren't illegal you get the impression that there is some error in the law that those things are not illegal. Then you get some misguided effort ot "fix" the law.

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In Georgia we have GALILEO, which is for any student in Georgia or anyone with a library card in a public library.

Not to many people seem to know about it, but when you can find something on it, it works great.

I think this the case was based on 16-9-93(b) of the Georgia Computer System Protection Act. The anandtech.com article you pointed to refers to section (a) part 3, but I think they're misreading the statute.

Section (a) of that part defines the crime of computer theft. The whole definition is too long to excerpt here (read the whole act at this address), but the gist is that computer theft is the crime of using a computer without authority in an attempt to appropriate, obtain, or convert property illegally. In other words, if you commit theft, and you use a computer, without authorization, to do it, then you're guilty of computer theft. In that way, the legal definition of computer theft similar to that of the crime of armed robbery. No robbery, no armed robbery. Likewise, no theft, no computer theft.

Section (b), on the other hand, describes the crime of computer trespass. This crime covers using a computer without authorization to delete data, interfere with the normal use of the computer system, or alter or damage the computer. This is clearly where the meat of the McOwen case lay: his installing of the Distributed.net client without permission had the side effect (arguably) of interfering with the normal operations of the computer systems in question.

McOwen was only charged with one count of computer theft, but seven counts of computer trespass. The count of computer theft was probably justified by the fact that Distributed.net offers a $1,000 prize related to the cracking of RC5, thereby implying that McOwen acted to use a computer without authorization to illegally obtain property (the $1,000). The property in question, here, is the $1,000 prize. Not the computer capacity that he (allegedly) stole.

So this case, while interesting in its implications, has nothing to do with whether or not computer capacity (i.e., CPU cycles) is property.

Really interesting case, though. In a way, it's too bad McOwen decided to plead it out instead of taking it to trial. The judge's ruling would have been just fascinating.

And the 59 cents a second claim is utter, utter CRAP.

Yep. If they're in Georgia, they probably have to buy their bandwidth through these folks. Given the price of a T1 from them, It comes out to under $3/hr, which includes 1/12 of their annual charge. That comes out to about five cents per second.

And the 59 cents a second claim is utter, utter CRAP.

Yep. If they're in Georgia, they probably have to buy their bandwidth through these folks. Given the price of a T1 from them, It comes out to under $3/hr, which includes 1/12 of their annual charge. That comes out to about five cents per second.