Students may want to think twice before downloading files to their computer, according to C.L. Lindsay.
Yesterday evening, Lindsay, founder and executive director of CO-STAR, the Coalition for Student and Academic Rights, spoke to students in the rooftop lounge of Hamilton College House about the Internet and their legal rights.
CO-STAR, a national nonprofit organization of about 750 lawyers, works to protect the constitutional rights of students and student groups.
In his talk, Lindsay discussed the three basic methods that CO-STAR employs -- advocacy, mediation and education.
Lindsay emphasized the importance of using these tools instead of litigation to solve problems on college campuses.
"Students have a lot of questions about what their legal rights are," Hamilton Faculty Fellow Michael Gamer said. "It's hard to find people to speak who are interested in the nonprofit aspect of law."
Lindsay answers close to 10,000 questions dealing with legal advice each year in his syndicated column.
He outlined the main focuses of his talk as, "privacy, free speech and intellectual property," with specific regard to the Internet.
Lindsay pointed out that the University reserves the right to read student e-mails, although does not routinely do so.
He also answered student questions regarding file sharing, predicting that the Recording Industry Association of America will follow through on many more lawsuits.
"I'm definitely going back to my room to uninstall Kazaa," College freshman Shakirah Simley said. "He made clear all the lawyer lexicon and clarified Penn policies as far as copyright infringement."
College senior Emily Truong added that she enjoyed the talk and that it made her "more aware of how adamant they are to catch people."
Lindsay discussed student rights with regard to free speech and explained that a computer network is not considered a public forum and therefore does not afford students the right to uninhibited free speech.
The bottom line, according to Lindsay, is that the University has broad abilities to regulate the speech of its students.
However, this is "not an effort to suppress expression merely because the officials oppose the view," Lindsay said.
He also cautioned that fighting words, obscenity and defamation are never protected by the First Amendment.
"The first step to protecting your rights is understanding them," Lindsay said.
Lindsay ended his presentation by contrasting slides from the famous college movie Animal House with pictures of college students at organized sit-ins during "Freedom Summer" -- both which came out of the early 1960s.
He urged students to challenge authority, but suggested that students "do something worthwhile."
The event, attended by a small crowd, was followed by an informal reception.
