News. US war on Internet piracy goes global By Dylan Hackett, News Editor hile a major copyright bill is being drafted and debated by the US congress, a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has revealed that the US Ambassador to Spain warned the country that a trade blacklisting could be a diplomatic option if a Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)-style act is not enacted by his government. The latest batch of cables obtained and distributed by Wikileaks show that the new SOPA-style act passed into Spanish law last week as part of the new government's Sustainable Economy Law was enacted by new Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, as fast as possible due to the threat of a US trade embargo. The Spanish government claims the law’s purpose is to help draw in US economic investment to the heavily indebted EU country. The American Congressional bill which the Spanish counterpart was modelled after, the Stop Online Piracy Act, continues to be criticized as a breach of Internet neutrality and privacy by Internet users and (ACLU), who wrote a letter to congress espousing the view that “the bill is severely flawed and will result in the takedown of large amount of infringing content from the Internet in contravention of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” and explaining that “by eliminating the concept of sites ‘dedicated to infringing activity’ SOPA enables law enforcement to target that contain some infringing content—no matter how trivial— and those who ‘facilitate’ infringing content.” As well as granting federal law enforcement the ability to shut “The American Congressional bill which the Spanish counterpart was modelled after, the Stop Online Piracy Act, continues to be criticized as a breach of Internet neutrality and privacy by Internet users and the American Civil Liberties Union...” down domains, SOPA contains a section set to increase jail sentences and penalties for counterfeiting drugs, military materials and surplus, and consumer goods: behaviour rampant on peer- to-peer online retailers such as eBay. Unauthorized streaming of copyright material also becomes a felony charge with up to five consequence. This includes such activities as watching TV programs through video clients such as Megavideo, Videoweed, and Gorillavid— whose web traffic and advertising revenue is garnered through streaming Many corporations and groups copyrighted video content. who stand poised to see a reduction The policy of Internet in traffic and business if SOPA censorship previously derided passes as law are also voicing their opinion. Google (whose interests include YouTube), Yahoo!, AOL, Wikimedia Foundation, and Facebook all stand against the bill which would give the American federal government the ability to shut down their entire sites because users of their services can share material deemed as infringing on the interests of copyright holders. Justin Bieber, who rose to fame singing what would be considered “copyright material” on YouTube, has also lent his voice to opposition to SOPA saying, “People need to have the freedom...people need to be able to sing songs. I just think by the Obama administration last spring during the uprisings in the Muslim world are thoroughly endorsed and codified in this bill, but fuelled by corporate copyright protection and not government censorship. Corporate sponsors of the bill include domain host GoDaddy, Nintendo, Sony, Monster Electronics, and the Motion Picture the American Civil Liberties Union years of federal prison time as Association of America. that’s ridiculous.” SFU-Douglas Degree Program Program allows students to pick classes from two institutions By Dylan Hackett, News Editor hile many students struggle to meet the WW cexsetcrments of an Associate of Arts or Science degree laid out by the provincial government, a recent partnership forged by Douglas College and Simon Fraser University—the SFU-Douglas Degree Program— allows students to maintain their active student registration status at both schools while taking classes at whichever institution fits their schedule. Students preferring to pay less money for credits offered at both institutions benefit from the program’s option of giving students two institutions to draw courses from. Interested students must meet the SFU admission requirements to either the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Environment, or the Faculty of Science; students must also have completed between 24-45 credits at Douglas College. Applications are processed through Simon Fraser University’s prospective undergraduates website. Students can also apply to the program from secondary school, or be assessed for admission based on their secondary school grades if they have not completed 24 post-secondary credits. This program is also a valid option for Douglas students interested in student housing. The SFU-Douglas Degree Program gives participants full access to the Residence and Housing at Simon Fraser University (pending credit requirements for students apply)—which contains a community of over 1700 students. The deadline for the program’s summer round of admissions is January 30. 4 Holiday homicides: Four dead after series of late- December shootings By Allie Davison, Staff Writer hile most of Metro Vancouver was enjoying a time of cheer and good will in the days surrounding Christmas, several families and their loved ones were having a very different holiday season after a string of four murders took place in the Metro Vancouver area. “These are very separate and tragic events that are only linked by the fact that they took place during this holiday season,” said Superintendent Dan Malo of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, as police assure the public that the four deaths are unrelated to each other and are non-gang related. The first victim was 28-year-old Bradley McPherson. McPherson was seriously wounded by a gunshot wound at a house party in Surrey on Christmas Eve. He later died in hospital. Alok Gupta, a store clerk at Ken’s Grocery in Surrey, was the victim of the second fatal shooting of the season. Gupta had volunteered to work on December 25 so the store’s owners could spend Christmas together and was shot during his shift. After the shooting, Gupta dragged himself to a nearby house to seek help, but he died before the ambulance arrived. The next evening, December 26, Jeremy Olivier Bettan, 38, was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Langley. When police arrived on scene, they found seven bullet holes in the side of Bettan’s SUV along with Bettan’s dead body—with one foot still in his vehicle. The final homicide occurred on December 27, when 28-year-old Apollo- Lyn Simpson was shot and killed in Surrey. Simpson was heard arguing with a man at around 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and gunshots were heard about half an hour later. Police were quick to assure the public that these holiday shootings were not a repeat of the spree of gang-related killings that happened a few years ago. “This isn’t a trend. This isn’t what we saw in 2008 and 2009, this isn’t gangs out shooting each other, which we did see. It just happens that these four happened over a period of four days and I think it was important for me to get that message out to the public,” said Malo. Although the consecutive, unrelated murders might concern Metro Vancouver citizens, the violent crime and murder rate for 2011 is down from the 2010 violent crime rate of 13.3 per cent (per 1000 population).