News 12-18-2001

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Feds Raid Campuses, Shut Down Piracy Net

U.S. Customs Service agents last week seized computers at several universities, including M.I.T., the University of California at Los Angeles, Duke, Purdue, and the University of Oregon, in an effort to shut down what they claimed was a global software piracy network. Investigators said that the piracy ring called itself the "DrinkOrDie" network, and was run by students, university employees, as well as software executives in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Investigators said the computers seized contained thousands of copies of pirated business software, including the latest word-processing, spreadsheet, and games programs. The Customs Service said that the universities cooperated in the raid and were not targets of the criminal investigation

Arizona State B-School Offers Students Pocket PCs

Arizona State University's MBA High Technology program is equipping students with Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs, saying access to anytime, anywhere, information is becoming a prerequisite for earning graduate degress. The handheld computers are being distributed pre-loaded with course syllabi, contact information for faculty and staff, an academic calendar, and the graduate admission packet. The school's MBA High Tech students are required to complete a 10-month applied project with a focus on new product development, which requires problem solving, cross-team communication and project management. Brian K. Boyd, faculty director of the program called the iPAQ "an excellent tool to facilitate this kind of information exchange."

For more information, visit: <http://www.asu.edu>.

Yahoo! Exec to Head Stanford Internet Law Center

Former Yahoo! Inc. vice president, general counsel, and secretary John Place was named executive director of Stanford's Center for Internet and Society (CIS), a program focusing on the connections between the Internet, law, and policy. Place, a 1985 graduate of Stanford Law School, was the first lawyer hired by Yahoo!, and retired from the company in March. CIS is a public interest technology program at Stanford Law School that brings together scholars, legislators, students, hackers and scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the law. Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan said Place "was literally there at the creation of Internet law, figuring out the law of cyberspace on the fly ..."

For more information, visit: <http://www.stanford.edu>.

AOL Launches 'Online Campus' Service

America Online Inc. said last week it would launch the AOL Online Campus, enabling its members to register for offline courses, access career resources, pursue a hobby or complete undergraduate and graduate degrees online. Coursework ranging from GED degrees to college-level business administration, technology and nursing studies would be offered by various education and content providers, including the online University of Ph'enix, the University of California Berkley Extension, the Western Governors University, the Public Broadcasting Service, and bookseller Barnes & Noble. AOL developed the Online Campus based on extensive member feedback, including a recent member survey showing 63 percent said they had a high interest in taking a course online.

Texas Agency to Run PeopleSoft Internet Suite

The Texas Education Agency has made a major commitment to use PeopleSoft 8 enterprise software to help manage its procurement, contract management, and spending processes, as well as to improve grant administration. The pure Internet modules include Services Procurement, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Portal, Financials and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). Bill Monr'e, TEA's chief of operations, said the procurement module will enable the agency "to extend business processes to our contract service suppliers -- through the internet in real-time." The CRM module will let school administrators complete grant applications and check status of grant approvals online, resulting in more efficient distribution of the $15 billion in state and federal grants provided to Texas school districts and charter schools annually.

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