Jena Six’ Spark Protest Fails To
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NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE A POSITIVE PICTURE: PHOTO LABS TO USE MORE ECONOMICAL CHEMICALS paGE 3 PAID BAYLOR UNIVERSITY ROUNDING UP CAMPUS NEWS SINCE 1900 THE BAYLOR LARIAT FRIDAY, SEptEMBER 21, 2007 Web site ID talk trumps ‘Jena Six’ Spark Protest fails to By Mary Foster iTunes The Associated Press satisfy JENA, La.— Thousands SpiralFrog offers of chanting demonstrators Film crew discontent free, legal media filled the streets of this little with BU’s response Louisiana town Thursday in to Web site conflict support of six black teenag- By Bryant Clark ers initially charged with Reporter attempted murder in the By Jackie Hyland beating of a white classmate. Reporter A new music and video The crowd broke into download Web site could leap- chants of “Free the Jena The associate producer of the frog iTunes and other online Six” as the Rev. Al Sharpton film Expelled: No Intelligence media providers. arrived at the local court- Allowed, Mark Mathis arrived Earlier this week, the Web site house with family members on campus Thursday morning SpiralFrog.com was launched in of the jailed teens. with a camera crew in a last the United States and Canada. Sharpton told the Associ- effort to speak to President John SpiralFrog is an ad-supported ated Press that he and Reps. Lilley. Web site created by Universal Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Mark Mathis wished to dis- that allows visitors to legally Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, cuss the decision to shut down a download music and videos and William Jefferson, D-La., research Web site on Intelligent without having to pay for the will press the House Judicia- Design belonging to Dr. Robert contents. ry Committee next week to Marks, distinguished professor SpiralFrog sells advertise- summon the district attorney in the electrical and computer ments on its pages, and when to explain his actions before engineering department. visitors view the ads, it in turns Congress. Lilley was unavailable, but gives the majority of that rev- This could be the begin- Mathis met with director of enue to the music artists, labels ning of a 21st century’s civil media relations Lori Fogleman and publishers. rights movement challenge and Dr. Ben Kelley, dean of the In order to download songs disparities in the justice school of Engineering and Com- and videos, users must register system, he said, and said he puter Science. for a free membership. Regis- planned a November march “I talked to (Mathis) about tration is quick and simple, but in Washington. The Associated Press the fact that our point has been members must visit SpiralFrog “What we need is federal Protesters march up First Street Thursday in Jena, La. Thousands of chanting demonstrators filled the streets consistent and has not changed, every 30 days to renew their intervention to protect peo- of this little Louisiana town Thursday in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder about the issue of a research subscription. If members fail to ple from Southern injustice,” in the beating of a white classmate. Web site being not about con- do so, their entire downloaded Sharpton told the AP. “Our tent but about the process,” library becomes locked until fathers in the 1960’s had to attempted murder. local courthouse and a near- NAACP, was also there. Fogleman said. renewal. penetrate the Kennedy and That charge was reduced by park to protest the dispar- “People are saying, ‘That’s Professors, once they have At its launch, SpiralFrog was Johnson administrations, we to battery for all but one, who ity in the charged teenagers’ enough, and we’re not taking done research for their academ- offering more than 800,000 have to do the same thing.” has yet to be arraigned; the treatment. it any more,’” Hayes said. ic unit, are free to do outside songs and 3,500 music videos The six black teens were sixth was charged as a juve- Thousands more marched Martin Luther King III, research, but not under Baylor’s for download from the record charged a few months after nile. along city streets in what at son of the slain civil rights name, Fogleman said. company Universal. In the three white teens were The beating victim, Justin times took on the atmosphere leader, described the scene “With both of them it was upcoming months, SpiralFrog accused of hanging nooses Barker, was knocked uncon- of a giant festival‚ with people as reminiscent of earlier civil really limited because they have looks to add more than 2 mil- in a tree on their high school scious, his face badly swollen setting up tables of food and rights struggles. a certain line they are holding, lion audio tracks. grounds. and bloodied, though he was some dancing to the beat of He said punishment of which the issues are all about Bedford junior Garnett The white teens were able to attend a school func- a drum. some sort may be in order procedures and not about the George thinks that SpiralFrog is suspended from school but tion later that night. The Rev. Jesse Jackson for the six defendants, but content,” Mathis said, “and all great for people who don’t want weren’t prosecuted. Thursday morning, thou- spoke to one crowd. Dennis the information we have seen to pay, yet want to stay away Five of the black teens sands of demonstrators clad Courtland Hayes, interim says that that’s not true.” from downloading illegally. were initially charged with in black converged on the president and CEO of the Please see JENA, page 6 Mathis said the main indica- “It could be a turning point tion to him about the issue being in the way we download music. about content is that Kelley sent If more companies do this, then an e-mail to Marks saying he it could really catch on,” he said. had “received several concerned Dr. Robert Darden, associate messages” about the Web site. professor of journalism, feels “With Dean Kelley and Lori strongly about downloading Fogleman, it’s pretty clear to me music, especially illegal down- that both of them were coached loading. by lawyers to continue saying “If people keep stealing it’s not content but procedure,” music, eventually nobody is Mathis said. going to put music out,” Darden Mathis said he asked Kelley said. “It’s either going to be too and Fogleman several questions protected electronically or the about academic freedom and the artist is just going to throw up issue behind Marks’ Web site, his hands and go back to bag- but he was unable to get a lot of ging groceries.” answers. Darden said if SpiralFrog “It seems odd to me that works and the composers get Baylor, which is a Christian paid, then it’d be a win-win situ- university, is uncomfortable ation. with a professor who is doing a “I don’t like how little iTunes The Associated Press research sympathetic to intelli- gent design,” Mathis said. Members of the student government at Johnson C. Smith University gather in the main courtyard in Charlotte, N.C., for a rally in support of the six Please see FREE, page 6 black teenagers in Jena, La., that were arrested in Louisiana in the beating of a white classmate. Please see FILM, page 6 KWBU sponsors World War II documentary Carbonara, professor of film and ness for what our troops are going said. By Selena Mejia digital media and director of the through,” he said. Retired Army Gen. Ralph Reporter Digital Communication Technolo- Carbonara, who also serves Gauer said younger people today gies Project. as a board member for KWBU, wouldn’t be able to understand the World War II not only brought The program features personal agrees that the veterans deserve impact of World War II without freedom, but also pain. That pain accounts of the war from a sol- to be recognized, especially by these stories being told. continues in the lives of World dier’s point of view. young adults. “We encourage the stories of War II veterans. “Our overall theme would be to “It is essential for students, the World War II vets to be told over KWBU-TV, Central Texas’ Pub- give the utmost respect and honor Y generation, to understand what and over and over again,” Gauer lic Broadcasting Service affiliate, to the brave men and women of their grandparents, and for some, said. put faces with the wounds World World War II for the tremendous great-grandparents, really sacri- Gauer is no stranger to the War II brought. sacrifices they made for our coun- ficed,” he said. “It’s so important effects a war can have. His older KWBU has produced a local try,” said Baylor alumna and for future generations to under- brother was killed serving in documentary that takes an inti- KWBU’s executive producer Joani stand.” World War II. mate look into the lives of World Livingston in an e-mail interview. PBS filmmaker Ken Burns pro- “Can you imagine those stories War II veterans. The documentary, “Much like in today’s war, they duced a seven-part documentary never being told?” Gauer asked. titled THE WAR: Central Texas were 17, 18, 22 years old, but dis- series that explores the history “(The documentary) helps drive Remembers WWII, features area played extraordinary courage and and heartbreak of four World War home the importance to get people Stephanie Jeter/Lariat staff World War II veterans and their valor during this critical time in II veterans, also set to air nation- a chance to talk,” Carbonara said. personal experiences.