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BY CHRISTINA TEMES

In print | October 2, 2003

In an effort to gain campus-wide exposure and to inform students of threats to computing freedom, the new student-run group Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons held a rally and information session on Tuesday night in the science center.

The group, founded by Nelson Pavlovsky ’06 and Luke Smith ’06, is dedicated to a multitude of issues pertaining to the prevention of the limiting of open culture. This translates into resisting the efforts of the Recording Industry Association of America to sue those who share music files, opposing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and similar expansion of intellectual property law, spreading the use of Linux and other freeware programs and fighting the plan of Microsoft and the “Trusted Computing Platform Alliance” to put monitoring chips in personal computers.

Linux, a free alternative to the Microsoft Windows operating system, lies at the heart of SCDC’s philosophy. The group’s short-term goals include getting more students to switch to Linux and get some Linux-based computers in public areas, to “show everyone how functional Linux is — that it’s not some impractical pipedream,” Pavlovsky said.

A major factor in SCDC’s championing of Linux is the advent of the Microsoft’s new “Trusted Computing” technology, also known as the Palladium chip. This technology, already present in some new IBM ThinkPads and set to be released in the upcoming version of Windows, would require Microsoft to verify if a user has permission to open a file on his or her computer.

Theoretically, this gives Microsoft the power to deny one access to a file or program that is saved on one’s own computer. Pavlovsky said that a massive switch to Linux could possibly cause Microsoft to step down its efforts to expand this technology. This is why SCDC wishes to recruit more colleges to boycott ‘Trusted Computing’ technology."

One of the other major issues to which the SCDC is committed is resisting current copyright and intellectual property laws, such as the DMCA. “The current trend in intellectual property [law] is toward the absurd,” Smith said. He added that this “is not encouraging innovation, but inhibiting it.”

Under current law, one cannot reproduce a DVD or tell someone how to reproduce a DVD, even if one owns the data and is using it for personal use. The RIAA continues to crack down more harshly on those who share music files over the Internet.

SCDC organizers wish to demonstrate the benefits of free, open sharing of such files without advocating piracy and while promoting alternatives to current copyrights, such as those available through creativecommons.org, in which artists choose how their work can be used, shared, or altered in the future.

SCDC members attempted to address all of these issues at Tuesday night’s meeting. The night began with an explanation of the group by Smith and Pavlovsky, which was followed by questions by the audience.

A viewing of “Free Culture,” a recorded presentation given by Lawrence Lessig, a proponent of open culture and author of “The Future of Ideas,” followed. In it, Lessig described the beginning of free culture in 1774 and the progression of laws to limit it, saying that “never in our history have fewer people controlled the evolution of our culture.” The event ended with the distribution of free software and the opportunity for students to get Linux installed on their computers.

Upwards of 20 students attended the event, many of whom were informed of the event by SCDC’s chalking of the campus that took place on Sunday. The audience seemed to respond positively to the meeting.

“It’s good to think about [these issues], because people don’t often think about things like intellectual property law until they start to directly impact them,” Tara Levin ’07 said.

After the night’s success, the SCDC organizers began to look to the future with optimism. This semester they hope to continue proposing alternatives in software, to get a speaker to come to campus and to organize a faculty panel for the spring semester.

After that, the SCDC plans to continue to work hard for their goals. “If there’s one place to bridge the gap between technology and creativity, it’s Swarthmore,” Smith said.

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