Music stealing all around

Cary Sherman's opinion piece on Sunday, "Mellifluous Discord: Universities' High-Speed Internet2 Used by Students to Pilfer Music," was as one-sided and illogical as the whole Recording Industry Association of America he represents, as president.

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Sherman suggests that universities should remind users of "the necessity of responsible use of network resources." In my computer science class at Carnegie Mellon, "Introduction to Computer Music," I spend a little time doing just that. I teach students how, historically, the major recording labels have dominated the recording industry, refusing to record some of America's greatest artists, including Louis Armstrong. (His first recordings were manufactured by a former piano company in Indiana, which was sued by the major labels of the day for patent infringement.) Mr. Sherman, is this an example of "a climate where creativity is valued" that you are seeking?

My students also learn how the broadcasting industry, dominated by NBC and CBS, ignored recording technology until the NBC monopoly was broken up by the FCC. The innovations in magnetic recording for broadcast introduced by the struggling ABC were a major step forward, enabling the modern recording industry and even modern computer technology. Mr. Sherman, was the monopolistic suppression of innovation the "responsible use of network resources" you are seeking?

Mr. Sherman, you say that stealing "is not OK," and yet I have musician friends who cannot get RIAA members to pay them the royalties they are due. While you are asking universities to address your problems, please don't forget that you too can be a "powerful leader in curbing theft of copyright materials on campus." If you'll stop your members from stealing from my friends, and then study some history, maybe I can help you.

ROGER DANNENBERG
Squirrel Hill

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Keep loan consolidation

The April 18 wire service article "Now Is the Time to Consolidate Student Loans" left out some very important details. It mentions that President Bush and House Education & Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner are trying to kill the fixed-rate consolidation student loan program and prevent students from locking in low fixed rates on their loans. What it doesn't mention is that students, consolidation lenders and professional groups aren't taking this lying down. We've formed a group called the Coalition for Student Loan Fairness to make sure Congress understands how important fixed-rate consolidation is, and they're listening -- just last month, Education & Workforce Vice Chair Tom Petri introduced a bill (HR 1617) in support of it.

Eliminating the fixed-rate consolidation program would double the amount of interest the average borrower has to pay on a student loan, and it wouldn't save the government a penny. According to Congressional Budget Office numbers released in March, the change to a variable rate could cost nearly $2 billion over the next 10 years in higher subsidies to private lenders. I encourage all of your readers to contact their congressperson (especially anyone in Melissa Hart or Tim Murphy's districts) and ask them to stand up for students by supporting fixed-rate consolidation.

ALIK WIDGE
Squirrel Hill

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Service is the real seller ...

When I lived in Cincinnati for almost 30 years, Shillitos was the store for our family. We would make forays into Poques [scary prices], Alms and Doepke, Mabley and Carew and Rollman's. But Shillitos was the store for regular, good old-fashioned service -- the best, bar none. And lunch in the basement before my grandmother died is one of the earliest treats I can remember; a hamburger and a milkshake probably cost about a dollar. By the 1960s I had married, and we had moved to Baltimore. But when I went back "home," I always went to Shillitos. It went downhill when it became Lazarus. I quit going.

Then in 1972 we moved to Washington State. I was thrilled to find a store in Seattle with the same kind of ambience I remembered from Cincinnati's Shillitos. It was called the Bon Marche. Oh, happy Christmas shopping. The same crowds elbowing each other for bargains! I became a shopaholic again.

Then came the inevitable corporate swallowers, making the people they were serving choke on their ideas of slick sales gimmicks instead of the real reason people shop: to be waited on, not ignored by bored salesclerks -- bored if you can find them! The salespeople.

Why is Wal-Mart successful? The salespeople walk you to the item you ask about. They go out of their way to be friendly. As the corporations gobbled up more and more of the hometown names, people stopped shopping. Who would rather go to Macy's than Shillitos or The Bon? Not me, or anyone I know. The Bon has now become Macy's, and I for one will never darken their door again! And this is from someone who wanted to shop at least one Christmas at Macy's in New York -- and I got that wish. I just wish they hadn't come to take over The Bon.

NIKKI NICKELL
Hoquiam, Washington

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... so forget your self-serve

I will not scan my own groceries. If stores want me to do that, then offer me a discount. I am doing work for them. How does this save them money when they still have an employee at the end of the self-scanning aisle packing the groceries? At Giant Eagle where I shop, the cashier also bags and does a lousy job at it. When they had a bagger and a cashier, the two of them talked so much I wondered if things were being handled correctly.

I really dislike grocery shopping and think the stores are run for the benefit of the employees and not the customer. I could go on and on about my grocery store complaints. I have complained to Giant Eagle, but it doesn't matter. One of my biggest gripes is how they pack the bags. And even if you use the self-scanning line, someone at the store packs your bags.

I find anymore that we have self-service and not customer service. I have stopped shopping at big department stores and instead favor specialty stores where I receive personal service. Try finding someone at Kaufmann's at lunch time to answer a question. The store has very few clerks per floor. And all they do is run the cash register.

KIMBERLEY BOYD
Zelienople

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SUVs here to stay

About Don Hammonds' March 17 piece, "Muzzled Guzzlers: SUV Sales, Appeal Fade as Gasoline Prices Rise," I am a big fan of SUVs. I like the way they look and that they ride higher than an ordinary car. I would love to be able to afford one when I get out of college.

I am excited to see that the demand for them has decreased, although the cost of gas has increased. Hopefully the prices of the SUVs will drop enough to counter the price of gas. I think that car companies will constantly reinvent the models to appeal to the consumers, no matter what the cost and that SUV's are here to stay.

LAUREN L. BLEEKER
San Diego, Calif.