p2pnet news view Mobiles | Advertising:- Apple is tightening its grip on America’s schools as taxpayer funded marketing divisions and in the process, may be giving authorities away to track students.

The company has always viewed schools not only in the US, but elsewhere in the world, as potential sales and promotion units and has succeeded in planting its commercial technology firmly into educational environments.

In France, “A copyright bill Apple boss Steve Jobs didn’t like, calling it “state-sponsored piracy,” has been neutered by the French Senate,” p2pnet posted in 2006, going on, “A draft law passed by France’s National Assembly would have barred Apple or anyone else, such as Microsoft, from trying to force people into buying a particular product through so-called Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures.”

The French Senate version of the so-called iPod bill, ” softens some measures that could have forced Apple to open all music sold from its iTunes Music Store to play on portable devices other than the Apple iPod,” said The New York Times.

Said BusinessWeek Online, “There’s also a provision in the Senate version that may allow Apple not to share its DRM at all. It could go to the digital copyright agency and make the case that its technology is not designed to protect Apple, but rather the musicians whose music it sells. The French are extremely protective of the ‘droit d’auteur.’ If the agency agrees that Apple is simply protecting the Rolling Stones, Britney Spears, and other artists, it may not need to turn over the Fairplay software code.”

However,  the reports had US commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez saying, “Any time something like this [bill] happens, any time that we believe that intellectual property rights are being violated, we need to speak up, and in this case, the company is taking the initiative.”

The National Assembly decision would have been, “doubly galling to Jobs because it may also stymie his efforts to introduce a hard-core marketing scheme that he’s been highly successful with in the US, in France,” p2pnet posted.

“Under it, Apple gets into major teaching institutions with Apple iPods and iTunes, which are spuriously presented as important teaching aids, and which are promoted and sold on Apple’s behalf by unpaid school staffs.”

“In the US, Duke University was to the fore as well, with Stanford close behind. It doesn’t stop with iPods. In Kutztown, NY, for example, students are forced to use Apple laptops at school, whether they want to or not.

Apple had, “started a ‘collaboration’ with the first French teaching unit for a similar arrangement,” we went on. “Under the terms of the two-year partnership, Apple will work closely with a business school near Versailles on ‘integrating iPods and other digital technology into classrooms and curricula’.”

‘… tracking where students congregate’

More recently, “cs193P - iPhone Application Programming - Marcos/Doll - TTh 12:50-2:05 - Packard 101,” a p2pnet post led off with, going on, “It’s from a Stanford syllabus. The university is unabashedly offering iPhone programming.

“But no surprises, really. Stanford —- one of America’s most prestigious universities —- is, after all, Apple-land, enjoying a warm and cozy relationship with the company.

“It admitted doing a deal which, ‘in effect turned the university into an Apple iTunes promotional outfit’.”

Now, “Taking a step that professors may view as a bit counterproductive, some universities are doling out Apple iPhones and Internet-capable iPods to students,” according to the New York Times.

It goes on,  “The always-on Internet devices raise some novel possibilities, like tracking where students congregate. With far less controversy, colleges could send messages about canceled classes, delayed buses, campus crises or just the cafeteria menu.”

A big part of the attraction is that the iPhone is “cool and a hit with students,” says the story, continuing, “Basking in the aura of a cutting-edge product could just help a university foster a cutting-edge reputation.

“Apple stands to win as well, hooking more young consumers with decades of technology purchases ahead of them. The lone losers, some fear, could be professors.”

Actually, it’s not so much a matter of Apple winning as well. It’s more that Apple is the primary beneficiary, standing to gain far more out of the deal than anyone else.

American students are already having their studies of negatively impacted, to coin a phrase, by the depredations of the corporate entertainment cartels, with the RIAA well in the front.

Students are accused of being criminals and thieves who download corporate ‘product,’ causing serious financial hardship to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG on the one hand, and Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, on the other.

But while the major labels and movie studios claim they’re being”devastated” (a word they both use repeatedly)  by file sharing, they continue to report eye-popping incomes.

With that in the background, “the newest devices can take class distractions to a new level,” the NYT states.

“They practically beg a user to ignore the long-suffering professor struggling to pass on accumulated wisdom from the front of the room —- a prospect that teachers find galling and students view as, well, inevitable.”

The story goes on »»»

It is not clear how many colleges plan to give out iPhones and iPods this fall; officials at Apple were coy about the subject and said they would not leak any institution’s plans.

“We can’t announce other people’s news,” said Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod and iPhone marketing at Apple. He also said that he could not discuss discounts to universities for bulk purchases.

At least four institutions —- the University of Maryland, Oklahoma Christian University, Abilene Christian and Freed-Hardeman —-  have announced that they will give the devices to some or all of their students this fall.

Willl the Apple products also be used to follow students around?

“University officials say they have no plans to track their students (and Apple said it would not be possible unless students give their permission),” states the NYT.

. .Stumble It!

p2pnet - France caves in to Apple, May 12, 2006
The New York Times - French Digital Music Copyright Bill Advances, May 12, 2004
BusinessWeek Online - Apple to France: Drop Dead?, May 12, 2006
doubly galling to Jobs - Foiled in France: Apple’s New Tub of Hot Water, March 28, 2006
p2pnet - Stanford offers Apple iPhone course, August 20, 2008
New York Times -Welcome, Freshmen. Have an iPod, August 20, 2008

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