[FC.USC]: March 27, 2007 - USC Free Culture Tips Over

On March 27, 2007, the USC Free Culture group hosted the “Intellectual Property Rights and The Modern University: How to Move Forward in the 21st Century.” Lewis Haidt welcome the crowd and our distinguished panelists and moderators with these opening remarks (link and audio link or listen below). We had a full house and fortunately, not enough time for Q & A (the Student Affairs office, which fined and suspended our privledges for our protest against the Free Speech zone, “mistakingly” told us that a class was beginning soon after ours and we’d have to be out by 6:30.)

However and not surprisingly, the media coverage was lacking. It’ll take time for the LA Times to cover us, but the coverage from the school newspaper, Daily Trojan, was extremely disappointing. The reporter did not include any Free Culture member on the record. Furthermore,

The Trojan’s coverage, “Panel discussed intellectual property - USC Free Culture hosts talk on limits of fair use and copyright for students” failed to cover the fundamental, core point. (link). In the opinion of USC Free Culture, the university has chosen to follow a corporate, rigid, specific Intellectual Property Rights philosophy. The logic of this decision reveals itself in numerous examples, the most recent being President Sample’s evasion and unwillingness to receive the complaint from the SCALE protest on March 27, 2007. President Sample, like many corporate leaders, believes he can hide behind close doors while activists attempt to engage the administration in dialogue. The integrity of the University of Southern California is at risk and your coverage failed to mention this foundational point.

USC as a community depends on The Daily Trojan to present the full, complete unvarnished truth. On an issue as important as Intellectual Property Rights, our community deserves better.