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#1084575 - 11/19/08 10:31 PM Tennessee keeps its priorities straight!
buggs Offline
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Combating music piracy at Tennessee's public university system is more important than hiring teachers and keeping down tuition costs.

Just-signed legislation requires the 222,000-student system to spend an estimated $9.5 million for file sharing "monitoring software," "monitoring hardware" and an additional "recurring cost of $1,575,000 for 21 staff positions and benefits (@75,000 each) to monitor network traffic" of its students.


It's a good thing the State of Tennessee knows its priorties, huh? If you live in Tennessee, please tell us how you feel about this.

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#1084591 - 11/19/08 10:41 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! buggs
HappyGilmore Offline
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Pulling people out of the ditc...
but then again, not monitoring it and allowing it to be downloaded does put them in the position of possibly having to defend a lawsuit, and so far the recording industry has won every single one...although the costs do seem high
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#1084594 - 11/19/08 10:46 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! HappyGilmore
buggs Offline
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Originally Posted By: SenorGilmore
but then again, not monitoring it and allowing it to be downloaded does put them in the position of possibly having to defend a lawsuit, and so far the recording industry has won every single one...although the costs do seem high

I don't think the RIAA has gone after a school yet as an enabler. Individual students for sharing, yes. I could be wrong, but I don't recall any buzz about them going after a school.

Now that the students have the support of a Harvard legal superstar, things may get even uglier.

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#1084600 - 11/19/08 10:53 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! buggs
Bobby Boucher Offline
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Originally Posted By: Bugs Bunny
Originally Posted By: SenorGilmore
but then again, not monitoring it and allowing it to be downloaded does put them in the position of possibly having to defend a lawsuit, and so far the recording industry has won every single one...although the costs do seem high

I don't think the RIAA has gone after a school yet as an enabler. Individual students for sharing, yes. I could be wrong, but I don't recall any buzz about them going after a school.

Now that the students have the support of a Harvard legal superstar, things may get even uglier.


But you have to admit you can see the potential for the school to be dragged in - seems proactive to me. At first glance I thought the cost seemed outrageous as well, but the full cost of the system and first year of salaries it works out to about $50 per student.
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#1084606 - 11/19/08 10:59 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Bobby Boucher
Mrs. Rizzo Offline
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Curled up by the fire...
eek TN is a great state...just maybe not so smart about somethings cry
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#1084628 - 11/19/08 11:15 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Bobby Boucher
buggs Offline
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Originally Posted By: Bobby Boucher
But you have to admit you can see the potential for the school to be dragged in - seems proactive to me. At first glance I thought the cost seemed outrageous as well, but the full cost of the system and first year of salaries it works out to about $50 per student.

Sure, but when it comes to cutting teachers over spending money to avoid risk, I wonder if the school adminstrators have a grip on assessing the best course of action or are they just running scared 'cause some lawyer told them they might be leaving the door open for a potential suit.

If nobody has been sued yet, why all the hand-wringing. Probably the RIAA has been sending secret messages telling them to get their house in order or they will be next. That's probably what's really going on -- more RIAA extortion. They're thugs and gansters.

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#1084634 - 11/19/08 11:20 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! buggs
Bobby Boucher Offline
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Originally Posted By: Bugs Bunny
Originally Posted By: Bobby Boucher
But you have to admit you can see the potential for the school to be dragged in - seems proactive to me. At first glance I thought the cost seemed outrageous as well, but the full cost of the system and first year of salaries it works out to about $50 per student.

Sure, but when it comes to cutting teachers over spending money to avoid risk, I wonder if the school adminstrators have a grip on assessing the best course of action or are they just running scared 'cause some lawyer told them they might be leaving the door open for a potential suit.

If nobody has been sued yet, why all the hand-wringing. Probably the RIAA has been sending secret messages telling them to get their house in order or they will be next. That's probably what's really going on -- more RIAA extortion. They're thugs and gansters.


I get what you're saying - just saying the potential seems to be there. I guess whether it's right is up for debate until the first enabler gets sued. But as far as priorities go, just keep in mind they are not cutting costs in order to pay for this, they cutting costs so they can pay their football coach $6 million to leave. wink
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#1084740 - 11/20/08 05:32 AM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Bobby Boucher
GuitarDude Offline
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Interesting Tennessee fact: The Jack Daniel's distillery is located in a dry county. crazy
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#1084793 - 11/20/08 01:50 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! GuitarDude
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In the Snow :)
Penn State, Pitt, and the Pennsylvania State Colleges went through a downloading crackdown a few years ago. It seems to be becoming quite common.
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#1084836 - 11/20/08 02:34 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Snow Bunny
Sound Tactic Offline
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Sorry bugs I am going to have to go with TU on this one. Stopping their students from committing crimes on using their recources should be stopped. Maybe not to the tune of 9.5MM, but it should be stopped.
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#1084878 - 11/20/08 03:04 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Sound Tactic
buggs Offline
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Originally Posted By: StrawmanILK
Sorry bugs I am going to have to go with TU on this one. Stopping their students from committing crimes on using their recources should be stopped. Maybe not to the tune of 9.5MM, but it should be stopped.

Apology accepted.

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#1084909 - 11/20/08 03:35 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! buggs
Mint Julep Offline
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Tennessee
Originally Posted By: Bugs Bunny
Combating music piracy at Tennessee's public university system is more important than hiring teachers and keeping down tuition costs.

Just-signed legislation requires the 222,000-student system to spend an estimated $9.5 million for file sharing "monitoring software," "monitoring hardware" and an additional "recurring cost of $1,575,000 for 21 staff positions and benefits (@75,000 each) to monitor network traffic" of its students.


It's a good thing the State of Tennessee knows its priorties, huh? If you live in Tennessee, please tell us how you feel about this.


First, where did you get this? I haven't heard about it. Considering the governor is telling all departments to cut back 10-15%, I'd be surprised he agreed to this expense.

Second, the headline on The Tennessean newspaper this morning says tuition is going up as much as 24% for the 2009-10 year, but they are blaming it on budget cuts, not additional expense. See the story here (I hope this works): http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081120/NEWS04/811200367

Third, the UT football team is not state funded. They make enough money to pay for their own expenses. The coach's salary isn't a hit on the state budget. Understand that we are talking about the semi-pro SEC, not some school where education is more important than sports, like Vandy. Oh, wait, Vandy is having a better season than UT ...
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#1084969 - 11/20/08 04:12 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! GuitarDude
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Originally Posted By: GuitarDude
Interesting Tennessee fact: The Jack Daniel's distillery is located in a dry county. crazy


That is interesting - perhaps this helps to explain why my Jack Daniels bottles tend to go dry so quickly.
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#1084970 - 11/20/08 04:12 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Mint Julep
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#1085002 - 11/20/08 04:42 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Mint Julep
Bobby Boucher Offline
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Originally Posted By: Mint Julep


First, where did you get this? I haven't heard about it. Considering the governor is telling all departments to cut back 10-15%, I'd be surprised he agreed to this expense.

Second, the headline on The Tennessean newspaper this morning says tuition is going up as much as 24% for the 2009-10 year, but they are blaming it on budget cuts, not additional expense. See the story here (I hope this works): http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081120/NEWS04/811200367

Third, the UT football team is not state funded. They make enough money to pay for their own expenses. The coach's salary isn't a hit on the state budget. Understand that we are talking about the semi-pro SEC, not some school where education is more important than sports, like Vandy. Oh, wait, Vandy is having a better season than UT ...


Glad you were able to see through my use of the wink on the coach comment - I bet others foolishly thought I was joking. wink

I agree that given the severity of the cuts and hikes, this decision is very surprising without reason to believe that the threat of a lawsuit is fairly imminent.
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#1085055 - 11/20/08 05:34 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Bobby Boucher
Mint Julep Offline
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Originally Posted By: Bobby Boucher
Originally Posted By: Mint Julep



Third, the UT football team is not state funded. They make enough money to pay for their own expenses. The coach's salary isn't a hit on the state budget. Understand that we are talking about the semi-pro SEC, not some school where education is more important than sports, like Vandy. Oh, wait, Vandy is having a better season than UT ...


Glad you were able to see through my use of the wink on the coach comment - I bet others foolishly thought I was joking. wink



So my use of sarcasm must have been like a billboard falling into the highway ... hard to miss! Right?
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#1085064 - 11/20/08 05:38 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Mint Julep
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Thanks, Bugs!

No wonder I missed it! It was the same day as the CMAs! China could have invaded and the local news wouldn't have covered it. There was too much going on, what with GMA in town, Costner's band playing a lame show, all the hooptymobiles downtown, the traffic congestion and the "country-western" stars in town.
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#1085086 - 11/20/08 05:49 PM Re: Tennessee keeps its priorities straight! Bobby Boucher
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Originally Posted By: Bobby Boucher
Originally Posted By: GuitarDude
Interesting Tennessee fact: The Jack Daniel's distillery is located in a dry county. crazy


That is interesting - perhaps this helps to explain why my Jack Daniels bottles tend to go dry so quickly.


It must be leaky bottles. Yeah, that's it! laugh
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