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On December 17, 2004, Candace Spigelman, longtime contributor to and then current co-chair of CCCC-IP died unexpectedly. In many ways, Candace was the ideal leader for the Caucus. More so than most, her scholarship was grounded in particular attention to the needs, expectations, and (mis)undertandings of individuals (especially students) as they work to establish themselves as writers. This is reflected in her books, "Across Property Lines" and the recently released "Personally Speaking: Experience as Evidence in Academic Discourse." At the time of her death, she had a number of projects underway. Some will be published in the coming months. Others will be completed by her many collaborators in the fields of composition and rhetoric. Some, inevitably, will never be completed, underscoring our loss.

Those of us who worked with Candace came to know her as a particularly engaged and committed colleague. Her leadership of the Caucus was marked by a blend of enthusiasm and efficiency. During her tenure, the Caucus continued its program of annual meetings addressing the intersections of composition and intellectual property, celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2004. Candace contributed mightily to the Caucus' move to its new Saturday workshop model, and to securing 2005's plenary session with Lawrence Lessig (chaired by CCCC-IP co-founder Andrea Lunsford)

After discussing an appropriate memorial with her family, the Caucus has determined to establish the Candace Spigelman Memorial Fund in support of the activities of CCCC-IP. Candace often bemoaned how constrained the Caucus was because of its lack of an operating budget that might be used to reinforce its efforts. Funds will be used to support the Caucus' web presence, to encourage graduate student participation in the Caucus workshop, and to generally enhance the Caucus' ability to educate teachers and students about the relationship between I.P. policies and the teaching of writing.

An article on the "Top 10 New Copyright Crimes" in LawMeme (at Yale) spins out some ramifications of the extremely broad interpretation of "contract" held by the head of Turner Networks, Jamie Kellner.

[Ad skips are] theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming.

As the LawMeme article points out, such views would make turning the channel when a commercial comes on illegal. Luckily, Kellner is at least allowing bathroom breaks.