From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.admin.policy, et al.] Administration in a research environment -- survey
Message-ID: <9205041455.AA06420@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 04:55:38 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.unix.admin
From: jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend)
Subject: Administration in a research environment -- survey
Message-ID: <1992May4.032817.5559@menudo.uh.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 03:28:17 GMT
I'm preparing a short report for my superiors in an attempt to
convince them that if they want to work their way up to "the big
league", they're going to have to recognize that system
administration in a research environment has different needs than
system administration in general. (If you have data or references to
other studies regarding SA work, please let me know. Thx.)
Description of current situation:
Overall: Math Dept at a major city university. Tenured faculty of
around 40 or so, many of whom hold internation status in their
respective fields. Typically yearly external grants that go into
computing resources or that rely on computing resources can total more
than $150K or so. Current plans include an undertaking to get funding
for specific programs on a $mil+/yr scale (which would require
upgrading current resources to "dog and pony show" status. Paint the
offices again, Eugene. :-)
Hardware
parallel computer used for research, a dozen or so workstations from
multiple vendors also used for research, 15-20 x-terminals of various
types, multiple laser printers (including color), an AppleTalk network
with a few macs and the printers, dial-up modems, terminal servers,
and 20 or so plain ascii terminals.
Software
SunOS, AIX and other Unix-based OS's. Compilers, TeX, various
visualizaiton packages, locally-written numerical analysis software
and development tools, GNU stuff, fancy mail with sendmail+IDA, "one
GUI to bind them" windowing environment, high level of security via
regular analysis of systems using cops/crack.
Users
Tenured faculty and their graduate students doing numerical research
of various types, some production, some algo. development, lots of
paper and proposal writing. Support staff doing techincal writing and
budget management. Graduate and undergraduate students doing
everything from writing quizes and keeping grades to running numerical
simulations. Total number of users is around 50, with the average
skill-level (both computerwise and UNIXwise) rather low, with only
a half-dozen or so "power-users" and another half-dozen "developers".
Current staff: one three-quarter time administrator and a one-quarter
time assistant.
Questions:
0. What salary should an experience administrator for this position
be paid? Said administrator must be able to do everything from create
accounts to network administration to software/hardware evaluation to
helping get the last bit of performance out of a particular
hardware/software combiniation. SA should also be prepared to "become
an expert" on any software/hardware in popular use and find new
packages to solve problems not forseen by the general users.
1. What sort of "power and responsibility" should the SA have with
regards to:
- hardware/software purchases?
- hiring of techinal support staff (should SA have a voice in
interview/hiring process, essentially)?
- decisions as to future direction of departmental resources in terms
of grant and proposal writing
2. Who should the SA answer to and what part of the hierarchy should
they "live in": office staff (answer to dept chair), research staff
(answer to chair of computing), or some other entity?
3. What responsibilities does the SA have with respect to:
- advising professors/administration on purchase decisions that the
SA was not requested to be involved in?
- intervening in usage disputes. (professor X and Y co-buy a machine
and are arguing over who gets to use it when.)
- sitting in a office and ignoring all the childish users. :-)
4. What benefits should the SA enjoy?
- what class of machine should they have available for personal use?
- should they have their own office (with window? corner office?),
or should they share with computing equipment / general office staff /
research assistants? Given a department that assigns offices by the
classes of "grader", "TA/RA", "post-doc", "office staff", "professor",
and "really famous professor", what sort of office should a SA get?
- Is unpaid OT acceptible? (Is it ever? :-)
- How much vacation time should the SA be allowed to take at one
stretch?
- does an SA deserve/require a paid assistant/secretary/tape-ape?
- should the SA be expected to punch a clock or document hours worked
if OT or comp-time is not accrued?
5. Anything you'd care to add not mentioned above?
Copies of this report will probably *not* be available (as it involves
internal planning, grants in progress, specific personel decision and
other sensitive material), although I will make the raw data available
to anyone who's interested.
Thanks for your input.
--
J. Eric Townsend - jet@uh.edu - Systems Wrangler, UH Dept of Mathematics
Note! New vox number: (713) 743-3466 '91 CB750, DoD# 0378
Want to report illegal or corrupt activities by a federal agency?
Call the Federally-sponsored Whistleblower BBS: 202.225.5527
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.admin.policy, et al.] Re: Administration in a research environment -- survey
Message-ID: <9205041456.AA06429@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 04:56:03 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.unix.admin
From: john@iastate.edu (John Hascall)
Subject: Re: Administration in a research environment -- survey
Message-ID: <1992May4.143205.15962@news.iastate.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 14:32:05 GMT
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend) writes:
...
}Questions:
Rather than saying what "should" be (because I think that varies quite
a bit depending on the people), I'll say what its like around here.
Background: I am a software developer at ISU who has done a great deal
of SA in my `spare' time -- we are just now in the process of hiring a
real SA so we can spend more time on what we are here for. We have
about 6000 users and 600 workstations in this particular system.
}0. What salary should an experience administrator for this position
}be paid?
In that size dept, around here such a person would probably make $25K +/- $5K
(of course, cost of living is quite low here [Iowa]).
}1. What sort of "power and responsibility" should the SA have with
}regards to:
} - hardware/software purchases?
Do research. Make recommendations.
} - hiring of techinal support staff (should SA have a voice in
}interview/hiring process, essentially)?
It's the other way around here, the developers interview the SA applicants.
} - decisions as to future direction of departmental resources in terms
}of grant and proposal writing
Research & recommend.
}2. Who should the SA answer to and what part of the hierarchy should
}they "live in": office staff (answer to dept chair), research staff
}(answer to chair of computing), or some other entity?
Here (the Comp Ctr) they report to an Assist. Director, in an academic
department to the Department Chair. Here, SAs fall into the "Professional
& Scientific" staff which is treated by the University roughly equivalent
to Faculty.
}3. What responsibilities does the SA have with respect to:
} - advising professors/administration on purchase decisions that the
}SA was not requested to be involved in?
Hopefully the dept head (or whoever oversees such things) would pass
the request by some member of the technical staff for comment. If
they do not, a good time to suggest this is when someone has just
bought something which won't work with what you already have.
} - intervening in usage disputes. (professor X and Y co-buy a machine
}and are arguing over who gets to use it when.)
Leave this to the dept head (you'll be ever so much happier).
}4. What benefits should the SA enjoy?
} - what class of machine should they have available for personal use?
What ever is required to do the job.
} - should they have their own office (with window? corner office?),
}or should they share with computing equipment / general office staff /
}research assistants? Given a department that assigns offices by the
}classes of "grader", "TA/RA", "post-doc", "office staff", "professor",
}and "really famous professor", what sort of office should a SA get?
Here in most dept, you would get the same office as a junior professor.
If you often have people in consulting with you this can be very distracting
to an office mate and is a reason for a single office. For many years a
large portion of the entire Comp Ctr was in the basement of a building
(no windows). This did a number on morale, in our new building the
machines are in the basement (imagine that), and everybody (I think)
has a window.
} - Is unpaid OT acceptible? (Is it ever? :-)
Salaried here. Some odd hours, some weeks over 40 hrs are expected.
} - How much vacation time should the SA be allowed to take at one
}stretch?
If there is someone else to do the SAs duties as much as they can. If
they are the only person, this can be trickier (maybe the solution is
to ask for a student assistant and check in each week or so).
} - does an SA deserve/require a paid assistant/secretary/tape-ape?
If the workload so indicates. Probably in your size department you
would use the general dept secretary and have a student assistant.
} - should the SA be expected to punch a clock or document hours worked
}if OT or comp-time is not accrued?
Not here (salaried).
John
--
John Hascall Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain
Project Vincent
Iowa State University Computation Center john@iastate.edu
Ames, IA 50011 515/294-9551 [fax -1717]
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [alt.censorship] just read and think
Message-ID: <9205041459.AA06449@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 04:59:49 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Date: Friday, 1 May 1992 11:55:25 TUR
From:
Message-ID: <92122.115526C44590@TRMETU.BITNET>
Newsgroups: alt.censorship
Subject: just read and think
Path: trmetu!kursat
Organization: Middle East Technical University - Computer Center
Date: Tuesday, 4 Feb 1992 10:30:01 TUR
From: Kursat CAGILTAY
Message-ID: <92035.103001KURSAT@TRMETU.BITNET>
Newsgroups: metu.cc.news
Subject: Network RULES (Please read carefully !!!)
Rules of Network Usage
This article explains the rules for EARN Network Usage in METU
campus. This code of conduct has been established to remind users
of the intended purposes of EARN, in additon to clarify that EARN
should not be relied upon for transmission of confidential or
sensitive data because EARN can not guarantee its security. Users
found in violation of these rules and regulations will be held
accountable for their action. EARN and METUCC reserve the rights
to deny the use of the network to individuals found to be rules
explained below.
1- An EARN user is a representative of METU, so, an extra care
must be taken while using the network resource. If one behaves
against the rules METU or Republic of TURKEY, METU Computer
Center has the right of cancelling the user-id without noticing
the user and give the information to the judgement institutes.
2- Purpose of the network is to support academic and research
activities. So, using it for another activity is not allowed.
> deleted
4- Listservs are powerful communication tools in academic life.
But some non-academic ones do exist. It has been reported that
some discussion against of METU and Republic of TURKEY take place
in some of these lists. Therefore, the ones taking place in these
discussion and against of METU and Republic of TURKEY will be
prosecuted.
>deleted
6-2. Use of the network for political and religious activism is
forbidden.
ANKARA_TURKEY.
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.admin.policy,alt.censorship,soc.college
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Abstract of CAF-News 02.18
Message-ID: <1992May4.213623.27833@eff.org>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 21:36:23 GMT
This is an abstract for the most recent "Computers and Academic
Freedom News" (CAF-News). Information about CAF-News follows the
abstract. The full CAF-News is available via anonymous ftp or by
email. For ftp access, do an anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org
(192.88.144.4). Get file "pub/academic/news/cafv02n18".
The full CAF-News is also available via email. Send email to
archive-server@eff.org. Include the line:
send caf-news cafv02n18
--- begin abstract ---
[Week ending April 19, 1992
[The draft policy discussed in issue 2.17 will (if finalized and
accepted) apply only to the U. of Kentucky's Engineering Computer
Center, not to the whole campus. The discussion continues this
week. - Carl]
========================== KEY ================================
The words after the numbers are a short PARAPHRASES of the
articles, NOT AN OBJECTIVE SUMMARY and not necessarily my opinion.
===============================================================
Notes 1-5 discuss Wes Morgan's draft Student Access/Use Policy for the
University of Kentucky's Engineering Computer Center (ECC).
1. Carl Kadie says, with respect to a sysadmin's monitoring the
creation of mailing lists by users: "Do you really want to take even
partial responsibility for the lists that you do approve of? What if
you give it an official University OK, and *then* it starts being used
for credit card [fraud]?"
<1992Apr13.154330.19059@eff.org>
2. "Any restrictions placed on your computing access must be directly
related to the charges filed against you. Any restrictions must be
approved by the Director of Engineering Computing prior to their
initiation... In the event that you, knowingly or unknowingly, appear
to have violated ECC or University policy, the ECC will attempt to
contact you."
<1992Apr13.144306.3022@ms.uky.edu>
3. That he monitors the creation of mailing lists by his users does
not mean that a sysadmin is exercising prior review over (and
therefore taking responsibility for) the subsequent contents of that
list.
<1992Apr13.150507.8230@ms.uky.edu>
4. Punishments meted out by the ECC are acceptable provided that they
are minor, that they are not imposed before the user has a chance to
speak, that appeals are possible and that reports of disciplinary
actions, and the reason for them, taken by the ECC are made available
to all users. More severe punishments should only be imposed by the
university Judicial Committee.
<1992Apr14.151655.19264@eff.org>
5. "I think that a 'policy history' would be extremely valuable in
handling future violations. I'd like to be able to reference past
incidents, for questions such as 'Has this happened before?' and 'How
was it handled in the past?'. I'm considering a 'sanitized' notebook,
with names removed."
<1992Apr14.120017.15683@ms.uky.edu>
Notes 6 to 8 concern the Equal Employment Opportunity Comission's
(EEOC's) sexual harassment rules, and whether its definition of
harassment is too broad.
6. "Whiloe working, a group of users and another consultant were
engaged in conversation with me. Topics included masturbation, sex,
feminism, and religion. A user overheard some thing I said, most of
which she found offensive... I have been informed that making comments
that "are sexual, or could be construed as sexist" are grounds for a
sexual harrassment charge."
7. "You are yet another victim of the _fantastic_ expansion of the
term 'sexual harassment'."
<32660026@hpmwmat.HP.COM>
8. Part of the EEOC's definition of sexual harassment is that it
creates a "hostile, intimidating, or offensive working environment".
This is a very vague definition, and a potentially dangerous one.
<1992Apr16.154842.29800@lmpsbbs.mot.com>
Notes 9 to 12 address the issue of a sysadmin's right (or otherwise)
to log outgoing telnet sessions in the interests of security.
9. "Yes, I have the root password, yes I *could* invade people's
privacy, but I'm a professional and I don't. If you don't trust the
people with root to respect your privacy (or at least to respect the
policies of your site concerning privacy), then fire your SysAdmin and
get one that you can trust."
<73966@netnews.upenn.edu>
10. "Order and freedom are mutually exclusive for the most part...
monitoring all users to make sure they are not trying to do anything
wrong is an invasion of privacy."
<1992Apr14.191146.29321@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
11. "The ability to monitor everyone does not mean that you should; in
this respect, I do not think telnet logging - including ones not
originating at your site, as the original poster also wanted to do -
should occur until a break-in is suspected."
<1992Apr15.205702.29713@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
12. "One should consider the overall chilling effect of the
monitoring. What effect will it have on the users--and the
institution--as a whole?"
<1992Apr16.035456.6200@ms.uky.edu>
- Elizabeth]
--- end abstract ---
CAF-News is a weekly digest of notes from CAF-talk.
CAF-News is available as newsgroup alt.comp.acad-freedom.news or via
email. If you read newsgroups but your site doesn't get
alt.comp.acad-freedom.news, (politely) ask your sys admin to
subscribe. For info on email delivery, send email to
archive-server@eff.org. Include the line
send acad-freedom caf
Back issues of CAF-News are available via anonymous ftp or via email.
Ftp to ftp.eff.org. The directory is pub/academic/news. For
information about email access to the archive, send an email note to
archive-server@eff.org. Include the lines:
send acad-freedom README
help
index
Disclaimer: This CAF-News abstract was compiled by a guest editor or a
regular editor (Paul Joslin, Elizabeth M. Reid, Adam C. Gross, or Carl
M. Kadie). It is not an EFF publication. The views an editor expresses
and editorial decisions he or she makes are his or her own.
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.censorship
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Critique of Turkish AUP (was "just read and think")
Message-ID: <1992May4.223243.28741@eff.org>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 22:32:43 GMT
This is a critique of the Computer Policy of Middle East Technical
University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. Most of my references are to US
centered documents, the ones to which I am most familar.
The METU policy provides no due process protection and bans much
speech. In this, it is similar to some of policies of universities
such as Iowa State, U. of Texas, and U. of Illinois. In contrast to
these the U.S. speech restrictions, METU's bans are clear and (as far
as I know) legal.
>Organization: Middle East Technical University - Computer Center
>Date: Tuesday, 4 Feb 1992 10:30:01 TUR
>From: Kursat CAGILTAY
>Message-ID: <92035.103001KURSAT@TRMETU.BITNET>
>Newsgroups: metu.cc.news
>Subject: Network RULES (Please read carefully !!!)
> Rules of Network Usage
> This article explains the rules for EARN Network Usage in METU
> campus. This code of conduct has been established to remind users
> of the intended purposes of EARN, in additon to clarify that EARN
> should not be relied upon for transmission of confidential or
> sensitive data because EARN can not guarantee its security. Users
> found in violation of these rules and regulations will be held
> accountable for their action. EARN and METUCC reserve the rights
> to deny the use of the network to individuals found to be rules
> explained below.
> 1- An EARN user is a representative of METU, so, an extra care
> must be taken while using the network resource.
An important principle of academic freedom is that students and
professors generally speak for themselves and not for their
university.
> If one behaves
> against the rules METU or Republic of TURKEY, METU Computer
> Center has the right of cancelling the user-id without noticing
> the user and give the information to the judgement institutes.
Expulsion from the network is a serious penality. Due process should
be observed. This means, for example, that a users should have a right
to a hearing and an appeal.
> 2- Purpose of the network is to support academic and research
> activities. So, using it for another activity is not allowed.
>> deleted
> 4- Listservs are powerful communication tools in academic life.
> But some non-academic ones do exist. It has been reported that
> some discussion against of METU and Republic of TURKEY take place
> in some of these lists. Therefore, the ones taking place in these
> discussion and against of METU and Republic of TURKEY will be
> prosecuted.
>>deleted
> 6-2. Use of the network for political and religious activism is
> forbidden.
Contrast this with the beginning of the Joint Statement on Rights and
Freedoms of Students:
"Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the
pursuit of truth, the development of students, and the general
well-being of society. Free inquiry and free expression are
indispensable to the attainment of these goals. As members of the
academic community, students should be encouraged to develop the
capacity for critical judgment and to engage in a sustained and
independent search for truth."
And later, in the context of outside speakers:
"The institutional control of campus facilities should not be used as
a device of censorship."
METU's policy is similar to a number of U.S. policies. For example,
Iowa State University also bans "any message of ... political nature."
The U. of Illinois's NCSA bans email that "attempts to disadvantage
NCSA" The Computer Science department at the University of Texas
forbids "messages that are ... patently offensive, or that ... demean
... individuals or groups, or that would otherwise bring discredit to
the University or the Department."
To the METU's credit, its policy is less vague than the U. of Illinois
policy and, unlike these U.S. policies, it does not (to my knowledge)
violate its nation's law.
On the other hand, there are better policies. For example, the policy
of the U.S.'s National Science Foundation Net explictly allows
"(3) Communication and exchange for professional development, to
maintain currency, or to debate issues in a field or subfield of
knowledge."
ANNOTATED REFERENCES
(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)
=================
student.freedoms
=================
Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students -- This is the main
statement on student academic freedom.
=================
policies/ethics.iastate.edu
=================
The computer ethics statement for Iowa State University.
critiqued
=================
policies/ncsa.uiuc.edu
=================
Email policy for the National Center for Supercomputer Applications,
a department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(Critiqued)
=================
law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
=================
The full text of UWM POST v. U. of Wisconsin. This recent district
court ruling goes into detail about the difference between protected
offensive expression and illegal harassment. It even mentions email.
It concludes: "The founding fathers of this nation produced a
remarkable document in the Constitution but it was ratified only with
the promise of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment is central to
our concept of freedom. The God-given "unalienable rights" that the
infant nation rallied to in the Declaration of Independence can be
preserved only if their application is rigorously analyzed.
The problems of bigotry and discrimination sought to be addressed here
are real and truly corrosive of the educational environment. But
freedom of speech is almost absolute in our land and the only
restriction the fighting words doctrine can abide is that based on the
fear of violent reaction. Content-based prohibitions such as that in
the UW Rule, however well intended, simply cannot survive the
screening which our Constitution demands."
=================
policies/nsf
=================
The NSFNET backbone services acceptable use policy
=================
=================
These documents are available by anonymous ftp (the preferred method)
and by email. To get the files via ftp, do an anonymous ftp to
ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):
pub/academic/student.freedoms
pub/academic/policies/ethics.iastate.edu
pub/academic/policies/ncsa.uiuc.edu
pub/academic/law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
pub/academic/policies/nsf
To get the files my email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):
send acad-freedom student.freedoms
send acad-freedom/policies ethics.iastate.edu
send acad-freedom/policies ncsa.uiuc.edu
send acad-freedom/law uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
send acad-freedom/policies nsf
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.admin.policy,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.unix.admin
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Administration in a research environment -- survey
Message-ID: <1992May5.000625.29609@eff.org>
Date: Tue, 5 May 1992 00:06:25 GMT
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend) writes:
[...]
>I'm preparing a short report for my superiors in an attempt to
>convince them that if they want to work their way up to "the big
>league", they're going to have to recognize that system
>administration in a research environment has different needs than
>system administration in general.
(This is speculation rather than an answer to your question.)
Many university librarians are now tenure tracked like professors. As
the sys admin job evolves it, too, may deserve/need this protection.
(Maybe it's already reached this point.)
I wish I had an on-line copy of the American Association of University
Professor's statement on library tenure, but I don't. It is available
in:
MECN $a $American Association of University Professors.
TILA0 $ac $Policy documents & reports /$American Association of
University Professors.
FOR0S $a $AAUP policy documents & reports.
EDN $a $1990 ed.
IMP $abc $Washington, D.C. :$The Association,$1990.
COL $ac $xii, 205 p. ;$26 cm.
NOG $a $At head of title: AAUP.
NOG $a $Includes index.
NOB $a $Bibliography: p. 191-196.
SUT L $az $College teachers$United States.
SUT L $azx $Universities and colleges$United States$
Administration
SUT L $axz $College teachers$Professional ethics$United States.
SUT L $az $Academic freedom$United States.
- Carl
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 4 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,unl.general
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: "The NSF made be do it" (was no subject)
Message-ID: <1992May5.005813.281@eff.org>
Date: Tue, 5 May 1992 00:58:13 GMT
>From: burchell@cse.unl.edu (David Burchell)
>Message-Id: <9205040334.AA04565@cse.unl.edu>
>Subject: DN article
>The following article appeared on page six of _The Daily Nebraskan_,
>the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, on
>Friday, May 1, 1992.
[David says this was posted with permission of the DN. - Carl]
>Official says messages contained pornography
>by Mike Lewis
>Staff Reporter
> Pornography was a factor in the UNL Computing Resource Center's
>decision to stop supplying and entire hierarchy of USENET news groups
>to UNL computers, the CRC director said Thursday.
> Doug Gale said during an Academic Senate Computational
>Services and Facilities Committee meeting that the material in some
>of the alternative, or alt, groups was so bad, not even the adult
>bookstores would carry it.
And 99+% of it is not.
> Some of the groups contained detailed information on how to
>torture and mutilate people, Gale said, and neither CRC nor the
>computational committee wanted to supply that information.
If Mr. Gale wants this type of material banned, he should ban it in an
open way. It should not be banned behind a smoke screen of resource
limitations. It should not be banned behind close doors. It should not
be banned by one man or woman.
He might consider using procedure the University library used in
deciding whether or not to buy _American Psycho_.
[...]
>. If UNL had continued to supply the alt groups,
>and someone had complained to the federal government, [Gale said]
>UNL would have
>been required to prove that the groups met the criteria of the NSFNET
>backbone service's acceptable use policy, Gale said. UNL must have
>then provided proof immediately, or the Internet service would have
>been turned off, he said.
I do not believe that the National Science Foundation requires that
Mr. Gale ban the alt groups.
* (I think) he is confusing an incident involving an FTP archive (that
can disrupt the Ne with lots of large file xfers) with Netnews.
As best as I can piece it together, an anonymous ftp site called Mars
Hotel (mars.ee.msstate.edu) had a GIF file archive with pictures of
naked people. The archive generated complaints to the NSF. The NSF
asked the admin about it. Rather than respond, the admin closed the
archive down.
So, the incident involved an ftp archive, not Netnews. Also, the NSF
made no policy decision.
My impression is that NSF would request a justification (not "proof")
2) that it would allow a reasonable time to formulate this
justification (not "immediate"), 3) that if such justification was not
possible, ceasing violation of the AUP would suffice (not "Internet
service would have been turned off")
* NSFnet policy has changed
NSF policy changed recently. The new policy explicitly allows "(3)
Communication and exchange ... to debate issues in a field or
subfield of knowledge" also allowed is communications for professional
development and to maintain currency in a field or subfield of
knowledge. This would cover most all of the alt groups.
The ONLY explicitly unacceptable uses are 1) for-profit activities
and 2) extensive private or personal business
Thousands of schools get the alt groups. This is no secret. The NSF
doesn't object. [I'm enclosing the NSF AUP.]
* Does UNL have to get alt groups via NSFNet?
NSFNet is a backbone network; Netnews is usually passed from neighbor
to neighbor. Has UNL tried to get a feed that doesn't use NSFNet?
* Doesn't UNL get the alt groups now and then delete them on arrival?
There is certainly no network policy that requires articles to be
deleted on arrival.
* What does any of this have to do with "alt" groups like
alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk as contrasted with "rec" groups, "talk"
groups, etc.?
> By removing the alt groups now, Gale said, UNL forestalled such
>a confrontation with the federal government.
> Other universities that have had such confrontations "have
>decided supporting pornography is not worth losing their Internet access,"
>Gale said.
I wish I knew for sure what universities (if any) Mr. Gale is
referring to and how that justifies removing newsgroups such as
alt.censorship.
I close with a quote from the recent _Rust v. Sullivan_ Supreme Court
decision: "Similarly, we have recognized that the university is a
traditional sphere of free expression so fundamental to the
functioning of our society that the Government's ability to control
speech within that sphere by means of conditions attached to the
expenditure of Government funds is restricted by the vagueness and
overbreadth doctrines of the First Amendment, Keyishian v. Board of
Regents, 385 U. S. 589, 603, 605-606 (1967)."
- Carl
============= ftp.eff.org:pub/academic/policies/nsf ========
THE NSFNET BACKBONE SERVICES ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
GENERAL PRINCIPLE:
(1) NSFNET Backbone services are provided to support open research and
education in and among US research and instructional institutions,
plus research arms of for-profit firms when engaged in open
scholarly communication and research. Use for other purposes is
not acceptable.
SPECIFICALLY ACCEPTABLE USES:
(2) Communication with foreign researchers and educators in connection
with research or instruction, as long as any network that the
foreign user employs for such communication provides reciprocal
access to US researchers and educators.
(3) Communication and exchange for professional development, to
maintain currency, or to debate issues in a field or subfield of
knowledge.
(4) Use for disciplinary-society, university-association,
government-advisory, or standards activities related to the user's
research and instructional activities.
(5) Use in applying for or administering grants or contracts for
research or instruction, but not for other fundraising or public
relations activities.
(6) Any other administrative communications or activities in direct
support of research and instruction.
(7) Announcements of new products or services for use in research or
instruction, but not advertising of any kind.
(8) Any traffic originating from a network of another member agency of
the Federal Networking Council if the traffic meets the acceptable
use policy of that agency.
(9) Communication incidental to otherwise acceptable use, except for
illegal or specifically unacceptable use.
UNACCEPTABLE USES:
(10) Use for for-profit activities (consulting for pay, sales or
administration of campus stores, sale of tickets to sports events,
and so on) or use by for-profit institutions unless covered by the
General Principle or as a specifically acceptable use.
(11) Extensive use for private or personal business.
This statement applies to use of the the NSFNET Backbone only. NSF
expects that connecting networks will formulate their own use
policies. The NSF Division of Networking and Communications Research
and Infrastructure will resolve any questions about this Policy or its
interpretation.
==============================================
ANNOTATED REFERENCES
(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)
=================
law/rust-v-sullivan
=================
The decision and decent for the so-called abortion information gag
rule case. The decision explicitly mentions universities as a place
where free expression is so important that gag rules would not be
allowed.
=================
=================
These documents are available by anonymous ftp (the preferred method)
and by email. To get the files via ftp, do an anonymous ftp to
ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):
pub/academic/law/rust-v-sullivan
To get the files my email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):
send acad-freedom/law rust-v-sullivan
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 5 00:00:00 1992
From: evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans (male 23 Libra))
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,unl.general
Subject: Re: "The NSF made be do it" (was no subject)
Message-ID: <1992May5.091903.6982@aston.ac.uk>
Date: 5 May 92 09:19:03 GMT
kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie) writes:
:
: As best as I can piece it together, an anonymous ftp site called Mars
: Hotel (mars.ee.msstate.edu) had a GIF file archive with pictures of
: naked people. The archive generated complaints to the NSF. The NSF
: asked the admin about it. Rather than respond, the admin closed the
: archive down.
I believe that the machine suffered a H/W breakdown, at least some of
the archives from mars have been transfered to another machine at the
same site.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Evans |evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk
+(44) 21 565 1979 (Home) |evansmp@cs.aston.ac.uk
+(44) 21 359 6531 x4039 (Office) |
From caf-talk Caf May 5 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: jbm@hal.trl.OZ.AU (Jacques Guy)
Subject: Re: College policies on hate messages needed
Message-ID: <1992May5.212601.19521@trl.oz.au>
Date: Tue, 5 May 1992 21:26:01 GMT
ctw@qopus.uucp (ctw) writes:
>Brian Jarvis writes, in answer to my "sticks and stones"::
>Napoleon Bonaparte (I think) said "I am more afraid of three newspapers
>than three thousand swords." Nice related notable quotable...
Precisely what I had in mind, but expressed cryptically: legislate
about hate messages and pretty soon you'll have kissed freedom of
speech good-bye. Napoleon was definitely not a fervent supporter
of freedom of speech.
From caf-talk Caf May 5 00:00:00 1992
From: spam@iastate.edu (Michael L Begley)
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.censorship,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Student at ISU has account revoked.
Message-ID: <1992May6.021706.7137@news.iastate.edu>
Date: 6 May 92 02:17:06 GMT
In yet another chapter in the Iowa State University censorship of
usenet saga, the ISU computation center decided today to restrict
rec.arts.erotica. (r.a.e) This is the first group not in the alt
hierarchy to be restricted, and the only moderated group.
In reaction, Mark Smucker (mds@iastate.edu) reposted to isu.newsgroup
the most recent 8 or 9 submissions to r.a.e to isu.newsgroups, the
group where news announcements are made. For this, Mark's account was
revoked.
Mark was given no indication that he had violated any university policy.
There is no policy forbidding the posting of "inappropriate material" to
a newsgroup, nor is there a policy forbidding posting obscene material
to a newsgroup.
ISU has once again overstepped its bounds. ISU students pay a computer
fee every semester. ISU students use computers for studies & research
as well as recreation. Most importantly, ISU is subject to the 5th
amendment, which guarantees due process. ISU cannot use its "executive
powers" to decide what students have the right to use the equipment
without exercising due process.
-mike begley
spam@iastate.edu
--
Michael Begley Ask me how A riot is the language
spam@iastate.edu Iowa State University of the unheard.
(515) 296-8378 is censoring my usenet access -MLK
From caf-talk Caf May 5 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.censorship,comp.org.eff.talk
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Student at ISU has account revoked.
Message-ID: <1992May6.025623.16297@eff.org>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 02:56:23 GMT
spam@iastate.edu (Michael L Begley) writes:
[...]
>Mark was given no indication that he had violated any university policy.
>There is no policy forbidding the posting of "inappropriate material" to
>a newsgroup, nor is there a policy forbidding posting obscene material
>to a newsgroup.
[...]
Moreover, the material is rec.arts.erotica is not obscene in the legal
sense of the word.
- Carl
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 5 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.censorship,comp.org.eff.talk
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Student at ISU has account revoked.
Message-ID: <1992May6.030039.16385@eff.org>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 03:00:39 GMT
Michael,
Please warn Mark not to break any real rules (e.g. using someone
else's account). The computer center would probably love to get him on
a real charge.
- Carl
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 5 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.censorship,comp.org.eff.talk,isu.newsgroup
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Student at ISU has account revoked.
Message-ID: <1992May6.033143.16713@eff.org>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 03:31:43 GMT
spam@iastate.edu (Michael L Begley) writes:
>In yet another chapter in the Iowa State University censorship of
>usenet saga, the ISU computation center decided today to restrict
>rec.arts.erotica. (r.a.e) This is the first group not in the alt
>hierarchy to be restricted, and the only moderated group.
>In reaction, Mark Smucker (mds@iastate.edu) reposted to isu.newsgroup
>the most recent 8 or 9 submissions to r.a.e to isu.newsgroups, the
>group where news announcements are made. For this, Mark's account was
>revoked.
[...]
When Iowa State University restricted alt.sex it violated the
principles of academic freedom. When it punished a student for
exercising his Constitutional right to free expression in a University
forum and imposed that punishment summarily in violation of that
student's Constitutional right to due process, it violated the law.
Iowa State University will likely try to justify its action (after the
fact) by saying that it is enforcing sexual harassment or obscenity
laws. No excuse justifies violation of due process rights. Moreoever,
the courts have consistently stuck down university attempts to justify
censorship of students with these excuses.
- Carl
ANNOTATED REFERENCES
(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)
=================
faq/censorship-and-harassment
=================
q: Must/should universities ban material that some find offensive
(from Netnews facilities, email, libraries, and student publications,
etc) in order to comply with antiharassment laws?
=================
faq/media.control
=================
q: Since freedom of the press belongs to those who own presses, a
public university can do anything it wants with the media that it
owns, right?
=================
law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
=================
The full text of UWM POST v. U. of Wisconsin. This recent district
court ruling goes into detail about the difference between protected
offensive expression and illegal harassment. It even mentions email.
It concludes: "The founding fathers of this nation produced a
remarkable document in the Constitution but it was ratified only with
the promise of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment is central to
our concept of freedom. The God-given "unalienable rights" that the
infant nation rallied to in the Declaration of Independence can be
preserved only if their application is rigorously analyzed.
The problems of bigotry and discrimination sought to be addressed here
are real and truly corrosive of the educational environment. But
freedom of speech is almost absolute in our land and the only
restriction the fighting words doctrine can abide is that based on the
fear of violent reaction. Content-based prohibitions such as that in
the UW Rule, however well intended, simply cannot survive the
screening which our Constitution demands."
=================
law/student-publications.misc
=================
Quotes from the book _Law of the Student Press_ by the Student Press
Law Center (1985,1988). They say that four-letter words are protected
speech, that public universities are not likely to be liable for
publications that they for which they do not control the contents, and
that the _Hazelwood_ decision does not apply to universities.
=================
law/constitution.us
=================
The Constitution of the United States
=================
law/constraints.constitutional
=================
Comments from _A Practical Guide to Legal Issues Affecting College
Teachers_ by Partrica A. Hollander, D. Parker Young, and Donald D.
Gehring. (College Administration Publication, 1985). Discusses the
constitutional constraints on public universities including the
requires for freedom of expression, freedom against unreasonable
searches and seizures, due process, specific rules.
=================
law/cohen-v-california
=================
Netnews article with reference _Cohen v. California_, "in which the
court ruled that Cohen's jacket, which stated "Fuck the Draft" was a
protected form of free speech, even though he wore it in a county
courthouse."
=================
law/doe-v-u-of-michigan
=================
This is Doe v. University of Michigan. In this widely referenced
decision, the district judge down struck the University's rules
against discriminatory harassment because the rules were found to be too
broad and too vague.
=================
law/due-process.buchanan
=================
Quotes about the due process requirements of "notice of charges" and
"find of facts" at a formal administrative hearing. The quotes are
from:
_Procedural due process guidelines for disciplinary hearings resulting
in suspension or expulsion in higher education_ by Ernest T. Buchanan
III. Published by Education/Law Research Associates, 1972
=================
law/due-process.french
=================
Quotes about the due process requirements of "notice of charges" and
"find of facts" at a formal administrative hearing. The quotes are
from:
_The Redefinition of the Exclusionary Rule as to Student Procedural
Due Process in High Education_. A monograph from the Office of the
General Counsel [of Southern Illinois University] by Dr. Larry L.
French, General Counsel, 1977.
=================
law/due-process.weckstein
=================
Quotes about the due process requirements of "notice of charges" and
"find of facts" at a formal administrative hearing. The quotes are
from:
_School Discipline and Student Rights: an advocate's manual_ by
Paul Weckstein, revised edition, 1982, Center for Law and
Education.
=================
law/goss-v-lopez.fischer
=================
Comments from _Teacher's and the Law_, 3rd edition, by Louis Fischer,
et al. Published in 1991 by Longman. It reports that the Supreme Court
says that some modicum of due process is necessary unless the matter
is trivial or there is an emergency.
=================
law/goss-v-lopez.mnookin
=================
Comments from _In the Interest of Children_, R. Mnookin (Ed.),
Franklin E. Zimring and Rayman L. Solomon (Contrib. Authors). It
reports that the Supreme Court says that some modicum of due process
is necessary unless the matter is trivial or there is an emergency.
Also,
=================
law/keyishian-v-board-of-regents
=================
In this Supreme Court case, the Court said that public universities
can not infringe on the Constitutionally protected rights of their
students and employees (specially with regard to loyalty oaths).
=================
law/mills-v-bd-of-ed
=================
Summary from the ACLU's Handbook _The Right of Students_ 3rd Edition
by Janet. R. Price, Alan H. Levine, and Eve Cary. p. 61. It says
before you can be severely punished, you have a due process right to
know the specific acts you are charged with committing and the
specific rules that those acts violate.
=================
law/mt-healthy-v-doyle
=================
_Due Process for School Officials: A Guide for the Conduct of
Administrative Proceedings_ by Edgar H. Bittle (1986) says that a
formal hearing should make a detailed "findings of fact" list.
=================
law/perry-v-perry
=================
Comments from the ACLU Handbook _The Rights of _Teachers_. It says
that campus mail systems (and other school facilities) can be limited
public forums. (Perry v. Perry was about an interschool mail system.
It was one of the cases that defined the Public Forum Doctrine.)
Also, a paraphrase from an ACLU handbook _The Rights of Teachers_. It
says that generally, speech, if otherwise shielded from punishment by
the First Amendment, does not lose that protection because its tone is
sharp.
Also, from p. 92, it says that there are legal limits to what a
(public) school can ask its teachers to sign. [Some of these same
limits might apply to what a school can ask a user to sign as a
condition of getting (or keeping) a computer account.]
=================
law/rust-v-sullivan
=================
The decision and decent for the so-called abortion information gag
rule case. The decision explicitly mentions universities as a place
where free expression is so important that gag rules would not be
allowed.
=================
law/san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
=================
Excerpts from San Diego Committee v. Governing Bd., 790 F.2d 1471
(1986). A decision by an appellate court that applied the Supreme
Court's Public Forum Doctrine (to a school newspaper).
=================
law/stanley-v-magrath
=================
Comments from _Public Schools Law: Teachers' and Students' Rights_ 2nd
Ed. by Martha M. McCarthy and Nelda H. Cambron-McCabe, published in
1987 by Allyn and Bacon, Inc. It says, in part, "[a]lthough school
boards are not obligated to support student papers, if a given
publication was originally created as a free speech forum, removal of
financial or other school board support can be construed as an
unlawful effort to stifle free expression." Also, "school
authorities cannot withdraw support from a student publication simply
because of displeasure with the content" and "the content of a
school-sponsored paper that is established as a medium for student
expression cannot be regulated more closely than a nonsponsored
paper". Also, it tells what to do about libel in student
publications.
=================
=================
These documents are available by anonymous ftp (the preferred method)
and by email. To get the files via ftp, do an anonymous ftp to
ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):
pub/academic/faq/censorship-and-harassment
pub/academic/faq/media.control
pub/academic/law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
pub/academic/law/student-publications.misc
pub/academic/law/constitution.us
pub/academic/law/constraints.constitutional
pub/academic/law/cohen-v-california
pub/academic/law/doe-v-u-of-michigan
pub/academic/law/due-process.buchanan
pub/academic/law/due-process.french
pub/academic/law/due-process.weckstein
pub/academic/law/goss-v-lopez.fischer
pub/academic/law/goss-v-lopez.mnookin
pub/academic/law/keyishian-v-board-of-regents
pub/academic/law/mills-v-bd-of-ed
pub/academic/law/mt-healthy-v-doyle
pub/academic/law/perry-v-perry
pub/academic/law/rust-v-sullivan
pub/academic/law/san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
pub/academic/law/stanley-v-magrath
To get the files my email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):
send acad-freedom/faq censorship-and-harassment
send acad-freedom/faq media.control
send acad-freedom/law uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
send acad-freedom/law student-publications.misc
send acad-freedom/law constitution.us
send acad-freedom/law constraints.constitutional
send acad-freedom/law cohen-v-california
send acad-freedom/law doe-v-u-of-michigan
send acad-freedom/law due-process.buchanan
send acad-freedom/law due-process.french
send acad-freedom/law due-process.weckstein
send acad-freedom/law goss-v-lopez.fischer
send acad-freedom/law goss-v-lopez.mnookin
send acad-freedom/law keyishian-v-board-of-regents
send acad-freedom/law mills-v-bd-of-ed
send acad-freedom/law mt-healthy-v-doyle
send acad-freedom/law perry-v-perry
send acad-freedom/law rust-v-sullivan
send acad-freedom/law san-diego-committee-v-gov-bd
send acad-freedom/law stanley-v-magrath
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
From: allens@yang.earlham.edu (Allen Smith)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.society.civil-liberty
Subject: Re: College policies on hate messages needed
Message-ID: <1992May6.021027.17451@yang.earlham.edu>
Date: 6 May 92 07:10:27 GMT
In article <1992Apr28.200554.4001@afterlife.ncsc.mil>, michael@afterlife.ncsc.mil (Michael of Nebadon) writes:
> In article <1992Apr28.120334.24043@nntp.hut.fi> jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
>>In article <1992Apr23.153142.8735@pcsbst.pcs.com>, billp@pcsbst (Bill Potter) writes:
>>>Now whereas the 1st Amendment may give people the right to make various
>>>types of statements within the US, it give no such right once outside
>>>the borders of the US.
You are incorrect; the First Amendment makes no restriction of
where the Federal government (and, by the 14th, the State governments) may
not engage in censorship of any type (there aren't any exceptions,
contrary to various "obscenity" and other unconstitutional Supreme Court
rulings).
-Allen
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.admin.policy] Re: Sacrificial Lamb: An Acceptable Usage Statement for your review
Message-ID: <9205061338.AA18019@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 03:38:58 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
From: mvanheyn@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Marc VanHeyningen)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Sacrificial Lamb: An Acceptable Usage Statement for your review
Message-ID: <1992May6.041217.11439@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: 6 May 92 09:12:06 GMT
In article <2723@loki.une.edu.au> mark@loki.une.edu.au (Mark Garrett) writes:
>IMHO I don't think your really thinking on this, just play endlessly
>boring mind games, on the net. You try going to the bank next and because
>you've noticed that you can slip between the view of the camera and the
>guard etc has turned away, and approach the vault. You get away with,
>fine so do a few students trying to do the same on a system. You get caught
>you will receive guess what from both!
Um, I'm sorry, I cannot for the life of me figure out what the heck you
are trying to say.
However, I still don't see why you're defending a policy stating that
"decoding access control information" is forbidden. I assume that
"ls -l" would thus be in violation of this policy.
--
_ _ Marc VanHeyningen mvanheyn@indiana.edu mvanheyn@iubacs.BITNET
/ / \ mputer-\
| | | oky Science "Nature makes jumps."
\_ \_/ gnitive/ - Hilbert
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,unl.general
From: fwp@Jester.CC.MsState.Edu (Frank Peters)
Subject: Re: "The NSF made be do it" (was no subject)
Message-ID: <1992May6.204649.16525@ra.msstate.edu>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 20:46:49 GMT
In article <1992May5.091903.6982@aston.ac.uk> evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans (male 23 Libra)) says:
: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie) writes:
: :
: : As best as I can piece it together, an anonymous ftp site called Mars
: : Hotel (mars.ee.msstate.edu) had a GIF file archive with pictures of
: : naked people. The archive generated complaints to the NSF. The NSF
: : asked the admin about it. Rather than respond, the admin closed the
: : archive down.
: I believe that the machine suffered a H/W breakdown, at least some of
: the archives from mars have been transfered to another machine at the
: same site.
You are talking about two different things. The NSF did indeed call
about Mars. The administrator of that system removed the questioned
files (which, I believe, included more than just adult images). Mars
itself was not shut down nor were all of the files removed from its
archives.
All of this occured a bit more than a year before Mars finally died due
to hardware problems.
--
Frank Peters - UNIX Systems Programmer - Mississippi State University
Internet: fwp@CC.MsState.Edu - Phone: (601)325-7030 - FAX: (601)325-8921
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [bit.listserv.pacs-l] Virginia Tech Electronic Village
Message-ID: <199205062145.AA28742@eff.org>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 13:45:39 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 10:11:10 CDT
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum
Subject: Virginia Tech Electronic Village
Message-ID:
From: Bernie Sloan
Subject: Virginia Tech "Electronic Village"
There's an article in the May 6 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Educa-
tion about a partnership between Virginia Tech and the Chesapeake &
Potomac Telephone Company (a Bell Atlantic Company) to study the feasi-
bility of creating an "electronic village" in Blacksburg, Virginia
(home of Virginia Tech). To quote the article: "If such an undertaking
proves feasible, all homes, businesses, and schools in the town will be
connected on a high speed electronic network....Those on the network
will be able to use electronic mail, join online discussion groups,
and take advantage of a wide range of business, educational, financial,
and general communications services. They may also use the Internet..."
It doesn't say exactly how this would be accomplished, but the involve-
ment of the phone company makes it sound as if ISDN may be playing a
role. Don't know if the concept is based on the Free-Net model, but
it sounds like it could be similar.
Granted this is in the feasibility-study stage, but a project like
this could have very interesting implications for library and informa-
tion services. The article, written by Beverly Watkins, does not
specifically mention libraries, so it's not clear what roles the
community's libraries are playing in this project.
Bernie Sloan, Director
Illinois Library Computer Systems Office
axpbbgs@uicvmc
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [rec.games.mud, et al.] Re: Corrupt Sys Admins and Logging
Message-ID: <9205062145.AA21013@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 11:45:04 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
From: lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Lydia Leong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud,comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Corrupt Sys Admins and Logging
Message-ID: <76944@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 6 May 92 20:16:53 GMT
In article <1992May6.161903.10715@midway.uchicago.edu> [ on rec.games.mud ]
h309@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
> I know this kind of post doesn't belong here (please don't flame me),
>but because a lot of you out there that read this are sys admins and this
>topic would probably prove to be interesting, I'll post it.
This kind of post belongs in comp.admin.policy; I've redirected follow-ups
to be cross-posted there as well as to rec.games.mud.
> I want to know how do sys admins log you?
It depends on your system. Chances are, at least SOME of the commands
you type are logged; a lot of places log outgoing telnet connections,
for example. Special commands like the "sudo" script which exists on
a lot of UNIX machines are also generally logged.
I believe the method of logging varies from system to system.
Warning: the rest of this post is heavily biased towards UNIX systems.
>-Do they save your history?
They could. If they're logging an entire session, your command history
will get saved.
>-Do they "snoop" you, like on Dikumuds?
There is an interesting program available that allows one user to see
what the other one is typing; it's intended to be used to facilitate
student-teacher interaction. That program must run with the consent of
both users. Presumably, though, one could write something similar,
and run it as root; all you're doing is at looking at /dev/tty
This kind of thing is highly unlikely, though. (Unlikely enough that
I wouldn't really worry about the possibility).
A system administrator (and other people with root priviledges) can
read all your files and check on your processes. But it's unlikely that
they care about what you're storing or doing, as long as it doesn't
violate computing policy at your site.
>-Do they get a readout on everything you type?
See the above. If you're talking about whether or not a sys admin could,
for example, get a printout of a session, then yes, it's possible.
(See Cliff Stoll's book for an interesting story on the logging of a
spy). If anything is being logged, it will definitely be the stuff
you're typing; it's also possible that the computer's output is being
logged.
> I was just wondering this because if I telnet to a mud or another host
>machine, will the sys admins find out my passwords there?
TCP/IP is an inherently non-secure protocol. A "renegade" system
administrator could set up his network in "promiscuous" mode and
capture packets; it's quite possible to find passwords and other
bits of information this way.
Many things are _possible_ -- it's just that they're quite unlikely.
A system administrator is not going to look through logs for kicks,
nor is he going to try to find out people's passwords, if he is a
true "professional."
I would not worry about your telnet sessions being logged; there is
a high probability that they are logged in some manner, but normally,
logs are not looked at unless someone is actively searching for a
cracker, and, even so, they are normally searched with "grep" or
something similar. Sure, there's a possibility for abuse, but since
you're not doing anything of a classified nature, and you're
(presumably) not breaking any computing policy regulations at your
school, you really have nothing to fear.
I trust that the people who run the machines I use are professionals
with ethical standards. Thus, I don't worry about stuff that I do
being logged (although I admit that initially it's a bit disconcerting
to know that someone _could_ be reading every word you type).
-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------
Lydia Leong, CSE '94 | C code. C code run. Run code run... please!
lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu | Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
lwl@imsasun.imsa.edu | "man reboot" (-n option): Avoids the sync(1). It
lwl@csa.bu.edu | can be used if a disk or the processor is on fire.
-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------
From caf-talk Caf May 6 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: cox@atp.serum.kodak.com (David Cox (x37017))
Subject: tuition reimbursements
Message-ID: <1992May6.203555.19517@clpd.kodak.com>
Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 20:35:55 GMT
OK, the tax exemption for graduate tuition reimbursements
runs out June 30, 1992. A provision was in a tax bill to
extend the exemption but President Bush vetoed that bill
(what else is new?).
The committee responsible for such bills is the
Ways and Means Committee.
Their phone number is: (202) 225-3625.
Please call them and urge them to make the tax
exemption permanent and to act before June 30th.
Maybe everyone complaining at once will help.
After all it is an election year.
From caf-talk Caf May 7 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.org.eff.talk] iowa state censorship...
Message-ID: <9205071724.AA25864@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thu, 7 May 1992 07:24:10 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 7 00:00:00 1992
From: gray@antaire.com (Gray Watson)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: iowa state censorship...
Message-ID: <9205071603.AA26232@antaire.com>
Date: 7 May 92 16:03:40 GMT
I posted the included message of protest to Iowa State about the censorship and
received the following addresses of administrators who are in charge. I have
forwarded my letter of protest on to them.
gstrawn@nsf.gov George Strawn, Director (on leave to NSF til Jul)
seagrave@iastate.edu Richard Seagrave, Acting Director
covert@iastate.edu George Covert, Associate Director
frazier@iastate.edu Bill Frazier, Assistant Director
dolewis@iastate.edu Dorothy Lewis, Assistant Director
FYI: root/postmaster there are the working gurus whose views often differ
*significantly* from the administration.
Also, according to Iowa State, they axed *part* of the alt.* newsgroups as well
as rec.arts.erotica and then suspended the student's account right before
finals, no less.
Also, it seems that the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has now censored
*all* the alt.* newsgroups. postmaster or root@cse.unl.edu may be a good
address to inquire about the proper address to send letters of protests.
Please excuse me if I am not timely with all this. No usenet access reduces my
information. Seems most of the censorship (at least at Iowa State) has been
occurring since December.
gray
----
This message is in protest to the reports of censorship of Internet network
materials at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Restrictions such as those
placed on the alt newsgroups (including alt.sys.sun, alt.os.mach, etc.)
demonstrates a very narrow-view solution that is, IMHO, uncharacteristic of a
university environment.
Iowa State University is quickly earning for itself an extremely bad reputation
on the Internet, all from, it seems, improper handling of a similar situation.
It now sounds like University of Nebraska's reputation should be held in
question.
I certainly understand that pornography and other explicit material may not be
deemed appropriate by the powers the be at UNL, but would they be so quick to
remove the same explicit material from the libraries and bookstores in the
local community? I am surprised and saddened that it is a university that is
crossing this complicated line *toward* censorship and *more* restrictions when
even the federal and most state legal statutes contradict such actions.
I urge the powers that be to take a breath and reevaluate the situation.
Sincerely,
Gray Watson
COO
Antaire Corporation
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.org.eff.talk] ISU student account restored.
Message-ID: <9205081345.AA02173@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 03:45:17 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
From: mds@iastate.edu (Mark D. Smucker)
Subject: ISU student account restored.
Message-ID: <1992May8.064304.8364@news.iastate.edu>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 06:43:04 GMT
Hello,
1) I have my account back.
2) Dr. Seagrave, the interim director of the Comp Center has
promised to get his letter of ``feasibility'' of user controlled
access vs. machine access to the vice provost John Dobson and to the
Dean of students, Mary Beth Snyder by Monday. ( see SEF press packet
if this makes no sense. )
3) If you would like more information, mail me.
Thanks to all that mailed officials etc...
Mark D. Smucker --- mds@iastate.edu
P.S. This made the front page of the university newspaper.
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [eff.mail.ethics-l] Re: new subscriber
Message-ID: <199205081754.AA29779@eff.org>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 09:54:38 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: eff.mail.ethics-l
From: rlee@UAFHP.UARK.EDU (Richard Lee)
Subject: Re: new subscriber
Message-ID: <199205081656.AA28559@eff.org>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 16:50:12 GMT
rramji4@mach1.wlu.ca writes:
>
>i am interested in the ethical issues of censoring certain
>networks in universities.
>if anyone can share any information that they have, i would
>greatly appreciate it. if it's been discussed on the list,
>please send mail directly to me.
>
I'm not sure what you mean by censoring certain networks, but
our University limits access to some netnews groups unless one obtains
special permission. I don't recall exactly what we do and don't have
access to, but I think if one is interested in dirty jokes or the
music of the Beatles one can't easily get to it from our netnews setup
(at least on some of our machines).
Is that the sort of thing you have in mind?
--
Dr. Richard Lee rlee@uafhp.uark.edu
Department of Philosophy Old Main 318 rlee@uafsysb.BITNET
University of Arkansas tel: 501-575-5826
Fayetteville, AR 72701
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [eff.mail.ethics-l] re: new subscriber
Message-ID: <199205082108.AA07386@eff.org>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 13:08:30 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: eff.mail.ethics-l
From: rramji4@mamut.wlu.ca (ruby ramji u)
Subject: re: new subscriber
Message-ID: <199205081846.AA01178@eff.org>
Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 09:29:17 GMT
thanx for replying so soon richard. yes the sort of thing that
i am interested in is universities that deny access to certain
lists. there are some universities that do not allow any
access to certain lists. special permission is not allowed.
also, the fact that these lists are not accessible is not
publicly known until someone complains about it.
should acess to these lists be denied?
do students have rights to total accessability?
does the university have the right to stop the flow of
information into the system?
who has the right to decide what should and shouldn't be
accessible?
these are the issues that i am interested in, and anything
else related to this matter.
ruby
rramji4@mach1.wlu.ca
wilfrid laurier university
waterloo, ontario
canada
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 8 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,misc.legal,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,rec.music.misc
From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [clari.news.music,clari.news.sex] "Nasty" not obscene
Message-ID: <1992May9.020407.28974@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1992 02:04:07 GMT
Copyright 1992 by UPI. Reposted with permission from the ClariNet
Electronic Newspaper newsgroups clari.news.music and clair.news.sex.
For more info on ClariNet, write to info@clarinet.com or phone
1-800-USE-NETS.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (UPI) -- The previously banned rap album ``As
Nasty As They Wanna Be'' was for sale again in South Florida stores
Friday, a day after an Atlanta appeals court ruled it was not obscene.
Thursday's ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals failed to
spark a buying frenzy at the record stores, but it boosted the chances
that a store owner convicted of selling the album would win his appeal,
the man's lawyer said.
Broward County Sheriff Nick Navarro led the 1990 campaign to ban the
raunchy album in Fort Lauderdale, obtaining a ruling from U.S. District
Judge Jose Gonzalez that the lyrics were obscene because of numerous
sexual references.
In his June 1990 ruling, Gonzalez called the album ``an appeal to
dirty thoughts and the loins.''
The Atlanta appeals court overturned the ruling Thursday, saying the
judge ignored testimony by music critics and others as to the hit
album's artistic merit.
The law says for a work to be considered obscene, it must appeal to
prurient interests of the average person, describe sexual conduct in a
patently offensive way and lack serious artistic value.
``It's a great day,'' said an elated Luther Campbell, leader of 2
Live Crew, after the decision came down.
``We won and I'm happy. I'm very happy that somebody out there,
outside of south Florida, don't hate me,'' he said.
Navarro's deputies twice arrested group members when they ignored the
ruling and performed songs from the album. Both times they were
acquitted.
Navarro's deputies also arrested E-C Records store owner Charles
Freeman, who was convicted in October 1990 on misdemeanor charges of
selling the banned album.
Freeman was sentenced to probation and fined $1,000, to be paid as a
donation to a Fort Lauderdale school of the arts. The fine was stayed
pending the outcome of the appeal.
Ironically, Broward County Judge Robert Tyson upheld Freeman's
conviction earlier this week.
Bruce Rogow, a Nova University law professor who represented both
Campbell and Freeman, said the federal court ruling had boosted
Freeman's chances of getting the conviction overturned.
``This decision is going to be helpful to it,'' he said.
Rogow said he would seek a rehearing before Tyson. If that fails,
he'll take the case to the state Fourth District Court of Appeal in Palm
Beach.
Freeman became a cause celebre after his arrest, but his debt-ridden
record store went out of business shortly afterward. He is currently in
a Texas federal prison serving an 18-year sentence on a cocaine
distribution conviction.
The sheriff was unavailable for comment due to a death in the family.
The department's attorney, Richard Purdy, said he could not comment on
the ruling because he had not seen it yet.
However, Purdy said the sheriff ``will follow the orders of the
court, but he will certainly consider whether to take this to the
Supreme Court.''
Meanwhile, at Q Records and Video in Miami, copies of the album were
moved from the storeroom, where they had been since the album was
declared obscene, and placed back on the shelves.
A store employee promptly bought a copy, but customers were less
enthusiastic.
``Nobody's even noticed. There's been no demand for it customerwise.
I think everybody that's wanted it has pretty much found a way to get
it, either out of state or from people who were selling it anyway,''
said the store manager, who asked not to be identified.
--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
From caf-talk Caf May 9 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.admin.policy,news.admin,comp.org.eff.talk
From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Netnews Resolutions
Message-ID: <1992May9.143013.14463@eff.org>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1992 14:30:13 GMT
These are the network policy resolutions developed by the Computer
Policy Committee at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The
resolutions were approved by the Committee and forwarded to the
Chancellor.
Provided by Alan Baron, ab@csd4.csd.uwm.edu.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Resolutions Approved by the Computer Policy Committee
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
February 21, 1992
Recommendation from the Computer Policy Committee
on Access to Network News Systems
Background
Users of the UWM central computer facility (faculty, staff, students)
have access to the network news system, a set of newsgroups concerned with a
wide variety of topics. Members of these groups engage in exchanges of
information on matters of common interest, such as computing, scientific
issues, social and cultural topics, the environment, politics, hobbies,
recreational pursuits, and so forth. This system is the product of a loosely
organized and largely unregulated network which now includes sites throughout
the world. If a site is linked to the network, users can transmit and receive
messages to and from other sites. There is no central repository for these
articles--they are passed automatically from site to site so that a news
article generated at a particular locale will eventually replicate itself to
network-connected news systems at distant locations.
Although the news network has become a valuable resource for university
communities all over the world, objections are raised from time to time
about the content of the messages and articles. These objections range
from complaints that some of the material is frivolous and unrelated to
serious academic pursuits to complaints that certain sexually-oriented
material is obscene or pornographic. Moreover, there have been instances in
which administrators at other Universities have responded to such complaints
by terminating or restricting access to the news network. Unfortunately, such
actions usually have been taken unilaterally, that is, without consultation
with appropriate faculty and student groups.
Censorship of the news network is not presently an issue here at UWM nor
do we wish to imply that the administration would act in an arbitrary manner
should the issue arise. Nevertheless, the Computer Policy Committee believes
that it would be useful to have a policy in place which would govern access to
and participation in the news network. The four resolutions below are
intended to express such a policy.
RESOLUTION #1
Resolved: That full recognition and support be given to the valuable
resource provided by the network news system.
Rationale: Electronic transmission of information is playing an
increasingly vital role in higher education. This new technology provides a
unique vehicle for the participation of the university community in the
world-wide exchange of ideas.
RESOLUTION #2
Resolved: That any action by the UWM administration that might restrict
access to the news network should be contemplated only after consultation
with the Computer Policy Committee and other appropriate faculty bodies.
Rationale: Such consultation is required by the principle of faculty
governance at UWM.
RESOLUTION #3
Resolved: That the same standards and principles of intellectual and
academic freedom developed for university libraries be applied to material
received from the news network.
Rationale: Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge
and the pursuit of truth, and it has come to be widely accepted that
censorship of library material on partisan or doctrinal grounds is contrary to
these goals. The many similarities of the print and electronic media require
similar standards concerning access to messages and articles received from
from the news network.
RESOLUTION #4
Resolved: That the same standards of intellectual and academic freedom
developed for faculty and student publication in traditional media be applied
to publication in computer media.
Rationale. Messages and articles posted to a newsgroup have many of
the features of a publication. They constitute a means of formulating and
conveying knowledge, including statements of belief and opinion, to the
the university community and to the world at large. Communications to the
the network that originate on this campus should be free of any form of
censorship or prior restraint.
--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
=kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
From caf-talk Caf May 9 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.org.eff.talk] Censorship at Iowa State
Message-ID: <9205091653.AA07878@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1992 06:53:36 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 9 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
From: kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan)
Subject: Censorship at Iowa State
Date: Sat, 09 May 1992 03:08:46 GMT
Message-ID: <1992May09.030846.26813@anomaly.sbs.com>
>Also, according to Iowa State, they axed *part* of the alt.* newsgroups as well
>as rec.arts.erotica and then suspended the student's account right before
>finals, no less.
Oooooh. How nasty. Now thost poor students will have to study instead of
pounding their pud in front of some GIF.
>Also, it seems that the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has now censored
>*all* the alt.* newsgroups.
Wasn't the "it has to be all or nothing - anything less is censorship"
claim posted here just a few weeks ago?
MD
--
-- Michael P. Deignan, KD1HZ / VE: ARRL, W5YI VECs
-- Domain: kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.com / --------------------------------
-- UUCP: ...!uunet!rayssd!anomaly!kd1hz / I'm not a bigot,
-- Telebit: +1 401 455 0347 / I hate everyone...
From caf-talk Caf May 9 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.org.eff.talk] Re: Censorship at Iowa State
Message-ID: <9205091653.AA07887@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1992 06:53:58 GMT
From caf-talk Caf May 9 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Censorship at Iowa State
Message-ID: <1992May9.122351.13172@eff.org>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1992 12:23:51 GMT
In article <1992May09.030846.26813@anomaly.sbs.com> kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan) writes:
>>Also, according to Iowa State, they axed *part* of the alt.* newsgroups as well
>>as rec.arts.erotica and then suspended the student's account right before
>>finals, no less.
>
>Oooooh. How nasty. Now thost poor students will have to study instead of
>pounding their pud in front of some GIF.
This seems to be a non sequitur. Are you under the impression, Michael,
that only alt groups with GIFs were axed? Or that rec.arts.erotica carries
GIFs?
Also, I think you mean "pounding their puds" rather than "pounding their
pud." It is unlikely that the poor students have only one penis among
them.
Unless of course you show up for a visit.
--Mike
--
Mike Godwin, |"If the bubble reputation can be obtained only at the
mnemonic@eff.org | cannon's mouth, I am willing to go there for it,
(617) 864-0665 | provided the cannon is empty."
EFF, Cambridge | --Mark Twain
From caf-talk Caf May 10 00:00:00 1992
Newsgroups: local.unix.general,wpg.general,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
From: buhr@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Kevin Andrew Buhr)
Subject: FP Article Confirms Billionth Monkey Hypothesis
Message-ID: <1992May10.093635.27536@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Date: Sun, 10 May 1992 09:36:35 GMT
[ This post concerns a poorly researched article published by the
Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) Free Press on Saturday, May 9, 1992 which
"exposed" the alt.sex.* hierarchy available on the University of Manitoba
Unix system. The university administration swung into action and on the
day the article appeared, the alt.sex.* branch of our news hierarchy
vanished. In addition to our local groups, I submit it to a.c.a-f.t
to serve as, if nothing else, another flagship signalling the end of
our civilization... or something like that. BTW, our site is a healthy
1600 group feed, and to the credit of our computer administration
personnel, this is the first incident of its kind that I know of. ]
[ self-indulgent comment on the article in question follows... ]
#pragma soapbox(on)
It just goes to show that pairing up a typewriter and an uninformed reporter
is sure to lead to trouble. My favorite part was the head of computer security
pulling up 169 sexual bondage entries. I expect it was more like nine "bondage
entries" and 160 test messages from people trying out their "wizvax" aliases.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Mr. DeCruyenaere's presentation was
misrepresented, but shouldn't an attempt have been made to fully demonstrate
the Usenet forum?
In terms of entertainment value, the cute little key phrases like "tapping
into the system", "information network", and "on the file" were a close
second, and the description of the Internet as a "data base used by 12 million
people worldwide in universities, defence departments, and major corporations"
was a not-too-distant third.
It seems that the Free Press figures that, if they can combine "computer
networks", "pronography", and "university" in one article, it's a front
page story. I guess boring little tidbits about riots in L. A. just don't
cut it as real news any more.
I almost keeled over when Terry Falconer, our administration vice-president,
said he could "order the university's Unix system to sever its link...and that
would be the end of it." It's no wonder he doesn't wave his hand and lower
tuition when he's so occupied with battling the forces of evil.
Where Ms. Paul, the article's author, got the idea that Usenet was a collection
of pornographic computer games I'll never know, but I'll lay odds that she
never actually saw an a.s.b posting. And who are all these "American
Subscribers" who "file" entries "via telephone lines?"
Yet, I'm sure that you, gentle listener, will sleep better knowing that
our boys in blue are "aware of the 'computer porn' and plan to trace its
origin." That is, once they figure out exactly what crime has been committed.
I guess they haven't gotten around to the question of how they'll prosecute
people in Denmark.
Anyway, I hate being up here as much as you hate listening to me, so...
#pragma soapbox(off)
[ comments on a local article follow ... ]
In <1992May10.020106.1432@ccu.umanitoba.ca> salomon@silver.cs.umanitoba.ca
(Daniel J. Salomon) writes:
>I haven't read any of the alt.sex newsgroups in years, but the
>impression that I formed then was that 50% of the postings were
>fictitious, and the other 50% should have been.
>Let's face it; that newsgroup was just for entertainment.
This isn't really the point. The university libraries carry a copy of _The
Shining_ and no less than thirteen Piers Anthony books. Opinions vary, but
I can state emphatically that neither author is a 20th century Shakespeare.
Besides, is "/usr/games/wump" (our great _Hunt the Wumpus_ port) around for
its educational value?
> Whatever
>expenses carrying such a newgroup incurred would be very hard to
>justify for a research and academic institution.
At the same time, of course, nobody balks at $6/student to keep B52's (our
money-losing campus bar) afloat. Frankly, "alt.sex.bondage" has better usage
statistics than it'll ever have. What kind of a message are we sending
people? Sex is bad, but damaging your liver is good? Not only is a.s.b
healthier, but it's marginal cost is low. Yes, it is a high-traffic
newsgrounp: so is comp.windows.x, and I defy anyone to point out more than a
dozen users on campus who read that one regularly.
>If you don't make a big fuss the whole thing will blow over, and
>everything will be back to normal in no time.
This is probably true.
>The only reason to fight for those newsgroups is to fight against
>censorship, but before you start such a fight, make sure that the
>information that those newsgroups carried is worth fighting for.
This isn't so true. If you give some people an inch, they'll take a mile.
I'm as cognizant of the small "p" politics as anyone. I am suspicious and
resentful of the fact that this story broke a week after exams wound
up and four days before many users will lose their accounts. I don't
care a wit for "principles"; this is just a bad precendent and a threat
to my newsgroup access.
I hope that Mr. Falconer's grandstanding was 50% lip service and 50%
misrepresentation, because I don't want anyone with his attitude involved
in administering my education. Note that I feel so confident he has never
even looked at a Usenet article, that I am comfortable publically insulting
him. Neat, eh?
Usenet is *most positively* an invaluable resource. If anything represents
the free flow of information and expression of ideas that our institutions
of higher learning purport to value, this is it. I have learned as much
from reading News as I've learned from all my "formal" courses put together,
and I'm sure many other students can seriously say the same thing. Where
else on earth is there a more comprehensive and accessible information pool?
This is to say nothing of the other resources the Internet and other network
collections provide.
On the bright side, Usenet has long been hidden away from the mainstream
media. Inaccurate articles like this, I hope, will only serve to further
cloud the issue and, with the help of smoke and mirrors, let it hold out
a little longer. Yeah... right...
Kevin Buhr
From caf-talk Caf May 10 00:00:00 1992
From: salomon@silver.cs.umanitoba.ca (Daniel J. Salomon)
Newsgroups: local.unix.general,wpg.general,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
Subject: Re: FP Article Confirms Billionth Monkey Hypothesis
Message-ID: <1992May10.211544.16614@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Date: 10 May 92 21:15:44 GMT
In article <1992May10.093635.27536@ccu.umanitoba.ca> buhr@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Kevin Andrew Buhr) writes:
> . . . I have learned as much
> from reading News as I've learned from all my "formal" courses put together,
> and I'm sure many other students can seriously say the same thing.
I would suggest that anything that you learned from one of the alt.sex
newsgroups should be checked out in the library before your put it to
use. :-)
I have unsubscribed from most of the unmoderated newsgroups because
there was so much rubbish on them. Even such newsgroups as sci.physics
started to annoy me. One person would post a question, then there
would be two right answers to his question, and ten wrong answers
posted. Then there would be twenty postings correcting errors in the
wrong answers, sometimes introducing new errors. There would also be
three posting erroneously finding errors in the postings with the right
answer. It got so that even if you knew the correct answer already,
you could still not always make out who was right and who was wrong.
On some serious and useful newsgroups such as comp.lang.misc, the
postings with corrections got insulting and offensive to the point
where even Dennis Ritchie was posting suggestions that the discussion
should be carried on at a more scientific level.
The newsgroups that I find to be the most useful are the local
newsgroups, since people who know each other tend to be more civil, and
the moderated newsgroups like comp.compilers, and
news.announce.conferences.
Lets hope that the powers that be do not start looking into
rec.humor.funny. That can get really racist, sexist, and filthy
sometimes, but I would hate to see it go because it gives me a good
laugh every now and then. After that newsgroup was banned at Berkeley
a few years ago, it was cleaned up considerably, but I still find it
offensive from time to time.
From caf-talk Caf May 10 00:00:00 1992
From: bh@anarres.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Harvey)
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
Subject: Re: FP Article Confirms Billionth Monkey Hypothesis
Date: 10 May 1992 22:07:31 GMT
Message-ID:
salomon@silver.cs.umanitoba.ca (Daniel J. Salomon) writes:
|I have unsubscribed from most of the unmoderated newsgroups because
|there was so much rubbish on them. Even such newsgroups as sci.physics
|started to annoy me. One person would post a question, then there
|would be two right answers to his question, and ten wrong answers
|posted.
[... lots more about how stupid everyone else on the net is ...]
|Lets hope that the powers that be do not start looking into
|rec.humor.funny. [...] After that newsgroup was banned at Berkeley
^^^^^^^^
|a few years ago, it was cleaned up considerably, but I still find it
|offensive from time to time.
I think you mean Stanford.
