USS candidates should focus on platforms, goals

Dear Editor:

I read the Daily Kent Stater to keep in touch with what’s going on at Kent because my internship keeps me away most days. I read the opinion article Tuesday concerning Katie Hale and had a good giggle, but thought nothing more of it. If it wasn’t for the advertisements in your paper, I probably would not even had known about the election.

On Wednesday, I once again read the paper to discover that Katie Hale had written a guest article in rebuttal to the opinion article printed Tuesday. Wednesday was also the day I decided to vote in the upcoming election, with much gratitude to Ms. Hale.

Her article has inspired me to vote for the type of person I want to be representing me as a student. That candidate, and representative of the Kent State student body, would have the maturity and class to let something like an opinion article go and let their platform speak for itself. The candidate would use their voice to encourage students to speak up for themselves, as any student representative should, instead of belittling and attacking one person who may not be voting for them. The future executive director would also focus more on giving themself positive press by focusing on people knowing their platform, not by defending their reputation.

So thank you, Ms. Hale, for reminding me of the type of executive director this school needs; I will surely make a point to vote for him come election time.

Nicole L. Hroncich

senior integrated language arts major

Different education needed for file-sharing controversy

Dear Editor:

Your Monday editorial, “Solution to stop file sharing is simple,” advocates education to reduce the number of complaints against Kent State by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegal downloading.

Unfortunately your opinion perpetuates the stereotype that RIAA complaints are against downloading. RIAA lawsuits against file sharing are for copyright infringement, i.e. unauthorized distribution – i.e. uploading, not downloading.

Unfortunately your opinion also perpetuates the stereotype that RIAA complaints are against criminal offenses. Copyright infringement is not a criminal offense; it is a civil offense. The punishment for copyright infringement is determined by civil law, not criminal law.

Unfortunately your opinion also perpetuates the stereotype that file sharing is piracy. Piracy means “robbery for profit.” But copyright infringement is not robbery, not even according to the Supreme Court. Moreover, non-commercial file sharing is not for profit.

Copyright infringement is a serious offense, whether in the form of unauthorized distribution or in the form of plagiarism, and the RIAA has a legal right to defend its copyrights. But file sharing is not all unauthorized, nor is it stealing, nor is it plagiarism.

Furthermore, many of the RIAA’s complaints are known to be unfounded, and their lawsuits frivolous. Their propaganda campaign against ‘piracy’ is a scare tactic which should not be taken at face value, especially at a university. It would seem that education is needed on both sides of this argument.

Edward Bowen

Instructor of mathematical sciences