- Federal agents in Phoenix and elsewhere in the country
raided schools and other targets in a national crackdown on pirated music
CDs and movies.
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- Agents poured through data and records at a computer
command center for the Deer Valley School District in the northwest Valley
and blocked the office from the public. It was among other places in Arizona
and "quite a few other states" where sealed search warrants were
served, the FBI said.
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- The raids came on the same day that Justice Department
officials in Washington announced the creation of a new Intellectual Property
Task Force to step up copyright enforcement.
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- Some of the stolen copyrighted material being sought
in the raids is suspected as having been distributed from overseas sources.
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- The raids are reflective of a new effort by the Justice
Department to treat copyright enforcement as a higher priority, something
that motion-picture and music-industry officials have been urging.
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- FBI agents raided the Deer Valley district's Administration
Services Center, just south of Deer Valley High School in Glendale, at
6 a.m. and stayed most of the day. The site houses the district's information
services and technology offices, essentially the "brains" of
the district's computer system, said Timothy Tait, district spokesman.
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- No warning
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- School officials were not warned in advance and even
the district's top officials, including Superintendent Virginia McElyea,
learned of the search warrant only when computers went down. Classes were
not disrupted, but computer use in the district office was limited with
no Internet access or e-mail.
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- "We were very in the dark," Tait said.
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- FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not comment on why the
federal government was searching a school district's system and he would
not identify the other sites in Arizona or elsewhere that were served with
warrants. Bresson refused to comment on the raids at Deer Valley facility
and elsewhere and would not say how targets were identified, noting the
search warrants were under court-ordered seal.
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- Mum was the word at the Deer Valley site, where an FBI
spokeswoman stood by the door and refused to give details.
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- "We can't talk about what we're looking for or the
nature of the case," said Susan Herskovits, FBI spokeswoman.
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- Officials said a news conference spelling out more details
of a nationwide operation could come as early as today in Washington.
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- In the past year, the recording industry has gone after
people, including children, for illegally downloading music from the Internet.
Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America subpoenaed
the University of Arizona to provide the personal information of four students
accused of illegally downloading music from university computers.
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- Last year, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing
on the link between international copyright piracy and organized crime,
and the FBI has said that there is strong evidence that organized-crime
groups have moved into intellectual-property crime, using the profit to
pay for other activities.
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- On Wednesday in Washington, David Israelite, chairman
of the Justice Department's Intellectual Property Task Force, announced
the names of people who would serve with him on a new task force, created
by Attorney General John Ashcroft. The task force will examine how the
Department of Justice handles intellectual-property issues and develop
recommendations for future efforts. The group expects to issue a report
and recommendations to Ashcroft by the end of the year.
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- Internet contracts
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- In Deer Valley, school officials expect to have full
access to computers today.
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- Tait said school officials are not planning any immediate
changes to the district's Internet policy.
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- Every student, employee and volunteer in the Deer Valley
school district must sign an Internet contract, which outlines expectations
for use of the Internet on school computers. Among the expectations is
that the Internet would only be used for educational purposes. Those who
violate the contract will be banned from using computers with Internet
access. "Some parents, especially of elementary students, don't want
their kids accessing the Internet," Tait said.
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- Each person who uses a school computer must log in with
a password, Tait said, which means every user can be tracked.
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- "It looks like the FBI is looking at actions of
individuals within the district as opposed to the operations of the district,"
Tait said.
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- Deer Valley has blocked many sites from student use,
including those where movies and music can be downloaded.
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- But with sites changing and with the sheer number of
sites, "it's difficult to block all illicit sites," Tait said.
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- Copyright 2004, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0421dvraid-ON.html
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