Excellent column in today’s Alligator, “Research licenses could aid the poor“:

Here’s where the EAL comes in. Essentially, it’s a template contract between universities and pharmaceutical companies, but it allows the patent to be licensed to other generic drug producers in poorer countries. When there isn’t a single producer licensed to monopolize a medicine, other generic producers can compete, and prices naturally go down. …
Publicly funded universities, including UF, should be guided by ethical patent licensing and adopt methods, such as the EAL, that allow the poorest among us to benefit from their research.

Also to note: Our friends Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, who are organizing for the EAL, are finally officially registered and have their own Web site.

For more background on the EAL, see the UAEM national Web site.

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I recently became aware that UF’s Office of Information Technology is planning to reorganize itself. As far as I know, the basic premise is to further centralize university IT services to save money. I believe the plan is also to hire a Chief Information Officer (CIO) to lead the new IT division; I’m not sure if the CIO would replace the Associate Provost for IT, or be below or above the associate provost in the structure.

The reorganization is very much a subject to watch. Services that are now scattered across colleges and departments will come under the same thumb. UF’s policies on issues such as open file formats and supporting free / open source software will be centralized. That can be an opportunity or a threat.

The reorganization will also raise two other basic issues:

1. whether student input and participation in the IT decision-making process will increase or decrease; and
2. whether UF will increasingly spend its budget on licensing proprietary technologies or on hiring developers and support staff for F/OSS. More directly, this is a question of whether we’ll send more money to Redmond or create more high-tech jobs in Gainesville.

Heads up on this subject in the coming months. Watch their reorganization page for updates.

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It would seem that the RIAA and the music industry as a whole are both out of touch with those they are trying to reach. Now those same individuals view them as a hostile and alienating force.

Read it yourself.

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Alligator story reports what many of us have known for a while: “Officials monitor student workers online”. The issue of Facebook, and how much information so many students disclose — and how the site creates an atmosphere of privacy that doesn’t really exist — is an interesting one, and one that ought to be examined more closely.

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Now the Alligator has an editorial on the Custom Copies copyright lawsuit: link.

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A follow-up article in today’s Alligator adds some context to the Custom Copies copyright lawsuit. UF law professor Jeffrey Harrison compares the case to filesharing lawsuits, saying the suit is

just like with music cases where the recording industry has gone after some people who are illegally downloading to make an example of them and make others fearful.

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A story in today’s Alligator says that Gainesville copy shop Custom Copies is being sued by publishers for copyright infringement. See also articles in USA Today, Gainesville Sun.
The publishers allege Custom Copies didn’t pay royalties due to re-print certain articles for UF coursepacks. (A major chunk of the cost when buying coursepacks is royalty clearance for the content, usually coordinated through an intermediary like the Copyright Clearance Center.)

Custom Copies says they pay $175,000 in royalties a year since 2000. The alleged infringements were mistakes where an employee simply forgot to clear the copyright.

The damages for willful infringement can be up to $150,000 per infringement. Is that the right price to pay for a student employee’s forgetfulness in clearing copyrights for an educational coursepack?

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