Machines Vend Movie Rentals

By wpengine | November 24, 2003

Trips to off-campus video rental stores may no longer be necessary for campus-bound students. Cornell is the first university in the United States to make available to its students MovieBox, move-rental vending machines, which up until now have mainly been used overseas.

MovieBox is a diverse library of over 300 movies, updated weekly with the latest releases and accessible 24-hours a day without students having to leave the campus.

“I think it’s great! The newest movies are out. I don’t have to pay the $8.25 at the theater if I wait a few weeks. It’s a great deal and it’s relatively cheap. I get to sit in my room and be comfortable — no traveling,” said Richard Freeman ’06.

There are two MovieBox machines located on Cornell’s campus. In late September, the first was placed in Robert Purcell Community Center and in mid-October the second was placed in Noyes Community Center — these locations chosen because of their exposure to students.

Pricing for MovieBox rentals are comparable to those of video stores. A 24-hour rental costs $3.75 plus tax, equaling to about $4.05. Hits and new releases are available in both DVD and VHS formats. Current popular hits include Basketball Diaries, Poolhall Junkies, Punch Drunk Love and Gangs of New York. Current new releases include Bruce Almighty, Finding Nemo, The Italian Job and Hulk.

The catch? Only those with credit cards need apply. The reasoning behind this is simple — as it ensures the proper return of the movies. If a movie is not returned on time, a late fee of $3.75 per day is assessed. Once a movie becomes ten days overdue, a $50 fee is assessed and the movie is no longer required to be returned. Each machine has a collect and return slot.

John Riva, business manager of student services at Cornell, authorized the installation of these machines. Each machine typically retails for $20,000 and was purchased from a privately owned company, Movies Around the Clock, which offers the service of fully computerized movie-rental vending machines to universities throughout the East Coast. The benefit of the service is of no additional cost to the university.

“It’s like managing a small store without having anyone work for you,” said Yoni Hornik, owner of Movies Around the Clock.

MovieBox was designed 15 years ago in Europe. The production manufacturers are located in Israel and Europe. Although MovieBox is new to the United States, countries such as Portugal, Norway and England have been enjoying these machines since their conception. Movies Around the Clock acquires its films from Ingram Entertainment, a distributor that works with movie studios such as 20th Century Fox, Touchstone Home Entertainment and others.

A contact number on the machine directs customers to technical support available around the clock.

“Customers should know these machines are 100 percent safe and 100 percent satisfaction is guaranteed,” Hornik assured. “We are happy to be at Cornell. It’s the best university to launch our product in the United States.”

MovieBox is a recent addition to the campuses of Rutgers University and Central Connecticut State University and is being considered by other Ivy League institutions. Beginning next week, MovieBox will offer sales and promotions for the holidays. Students will be able to rent movies at discounted prices, ranging from 50-60 percent off, from Sunday night through Thursday.

Archived article by Anne Ceccarini

How Safe Is Your E-mail?

By wpengine November 25, 2003

Between the passage of the controversial PATRIOT Act and the threat of RIAA subpoenas, students are increasingly concerned about their rights to privacy. An article on Salon.com states that the University of New Hampshire monitored a private mailing list and shut down a protest with the information they culled from it, while the University of Wyoming has begun testing software that could eventually track every file that passes through its network. Exactly how “private” a schools’ networks should — and can — be is becoming a topic debated heatedly. “The argument, ‘Don’t worry, we’re not going to invade your privacy’ is woefully inadequate,'” says Matt Gewolb ’04, founder of the Cornell Freedom Project. “I find [the privacy abuses at UNH] really deeply disturbing — and there’s a possibility that could happen at Cornell,” Gewolb said. Tracy Mitrano, director of information technology policy and computer law policy, disagrees. “Students should feel very good [about their privacy on CIT systems], because of [Cornell Information Technology]’s policy and procedures [that] protect access to their e-mail on CIT systems,” Mitrano said. “[Students’] mail is not always restricted to CIT systems, however, and there is no university policy on access to e-mail.” “The total picture is one of very carefully crafted policy and implementation procedures,” she continued. This picture is one that is made up of a series of protocol implemented to ensure that private information remains so, barring what Mitrano refers to as “compulsory legal papers” and emergency situations. Cornell’s Information Technology Rights and Responsibilities states, “Cornell does not monitor or censor e-mail.” Every policy change, including the recently-implemented PureMessage software package, takes this into careful considerations. PureMessage scans incoming messages for viruses and then tries to guess at whether the e-mail is spam, or junk e-mail, by using an automatic “scorecard.” “While the software package scans incoming messages and applies a set of heuristics to identify the likelihood that a message may be spam, no person is actually involved in that determination — thus not true monitoring is occurring,” said Rick MacDonald ’71, director of systems and operations at CIT. “No one looks at any portion of the quarantined mail,” he continued. There are, however, strict circumstances under which the University will look at mail. “Certainly we will comply with all compulsory legal papers received by the University and accordingly reviewed by University legal counsel,” Mitrano said. “[However,] CIT is absolutely not proactively monitoring its network looking for illegal activities.” Aside from legal necessity, the University only reads e-mail or internet logs in emergency situations with the permission of the appropriate vice president of the student, according to Mitrano. “We have sometimes been asked to monitor content without appropriate cause, for example by the RIAA to enforce their copyrights, or even in the case of the stray individual who calls and asks if they could check their ex-boyfriend’s mail to see if he is dating someone new … but in every case, where there is not appropriate cause such as a bona fide emergency or compulsory legal paper or permission by the vice president of students … these requests are unequivocally and unilaterally denied. We simply don’t do it,” she said. Gewolb says this policy doesn’t go far enough in protecting student privacy. “E-mail privacy is pretty simple. It shouldn’t be read by administrators or third parties, period,” he said. “It’s in black and white [on their policy website]: they can tell which kind of websites you’ve been visiting. What business is it of the university to monitor our internet usage, read our e-mail, and invade student privacy?” he continued. Gewolb was referencing Cornell’s “Data Access and Retention” paper, which states that CIT keeps router transaction logs for approximately six months, which are used for “troubleshooting, capacity planning, security investigations, cost allocation,” according to the paper. E-mails sent over Cornell servers are stored for seven days, the paper continues. Gewolb said that these logs should not be kept at all. Mitrano countered that “University business functions could not operate without back up operations, netflow logs, and other supporting documentation … It is simply not reasonable to purge all logging information.” Despite their fundamental disagreements, both Mitrano and Gewolb hope to see changes in the University’s policy. “Explicit policy and procedure about the handling of e-mail exists to protect mail that goes through CIT systems. But there is no university policy explicitly stating the policies and procedure about the handling of mail throughout the whole university … it is on balance better to have a policy on matters such as these not only to make the practices uniform, but to instill a sense of trust throughout the community.” To these ends, CIT is sponsoring an “Access to Electronic Mail” policy that would extend CIT’s policies — or others drafted — across the entire university. “We hope that the rest of the University will assist us in crafting, and promulgating, this important policy.” Gewolb says that CIT needs to seriously reconsider its current stance, however: “There needs to be a complete overhaul, with student input and mechanisms in place to ensure the university isn’t reading our private communications … I don’t care if it’s [President] Jeffrey Lehman approving some action, Cornell shouldn’t be reading my e-mail.” Archived article by Michael Morisy
West Campus Parking Woes

By wpengine November 25, 2003

Protesting the University’s plans for a parking lot in the University Hill neighborhood, where Redbud Woods currently stands, the Redbud Woods Working Group held a press conference and enthusiastic rally last Friday morning. Backed by a banner saying, “Don’t pave, SAVE Redbud Woods,” Elizabeth Millhollen ’04 opened the press conference in the Straight Art Gallery. Millhollen spent nine hours in a tree in the woods to protest the parking lot on Nov. 14. After Millhollen’s introduction, Calvin Croll ’04 explained the history of the controversy. After the City of Ithaca Planning Board denied a permit for the University to build a parking lot on the site in February, the University sued the city. On Oct. 29, a New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of the University and the Planning Board accepted the plan. However, in July, the Ithaca Common Council ruled Redbud Woods a historic area, another hurdle that the University must overcome before they can finalize plans. Croll said he believes that the University’s actions directly contradict President Jeffrey S. Lehman’s ’77 promise to improve Cornell-Ithaca relations. In particular, he said the group opposes a clause in the Memorandum of Understanding between the city and the school that allows Cornell to withdraw financial support from the city. They said they are afraid that Cornell will cancel or decrease the contributions if the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission rejects the plans. “We feel that this puts any planning decision or any city decision at the will of Cornell,” he said. Daniel Pearlstein ’05, Sun columnist, presented the Redbud Wood’s Working Group’s five main demands of the administration. The group is calling for the administration to cancel the parking lot plans, write a formal response to the criticisms of the parking lot by Dec. 5 and consider all alternative transportation plans. Proposed alternatives include building a parking garage where there is already a parking lot, underground parking and decreasing parking permits for freshmen. The group also wants the University to design an environmentally sound transportation plan and agree not to withdraw financial support to Ithaca. From the press conference, about 50 students and some community members assembled outside and marched to Day Hall from the Straight, carrying signs, yelling and pounding drums. In front of Day Hall, Millhollen led several chants, including, “This is what we’ve been told, Cornell only thinks of gold, Ithaca can’t be bought and sold!” The crowd responded heartily, loudly repeating the slogans. Stephanie Juice ’04, a protestor at the rally, said she hoped the event would prompt a response from the administration and raise awareness of the issue. “It’s an issue that needs to be told to students, so they know what their University is doing,” she said. Students passing by the rally seemed to have mixed feelings on the issue, with some strongly in favor of the proposed parking lot. “I really think that they should build those parking lots. Two football fields isn’t that much,” said Matt Herndon ’04. “I think that the fact that they call it a forest is a travesty and that the paving should go.” “I think we could really use some parking lots. I’m not going to lie,” said Benjamin Krotman ’06. Other students had a slightly more positive opinion of the rally. “It’s hard at a university that’s growing so much to save green space,” said Rachel Ruggirello ’04. “If there’s an alternative, the alternative should be taken.”Archived article by Shannon Brescher