From declanm@netcom.com Wed Jul 26 11:37:21 1995 Return-Path: Received: from po8.andrew.cmu.edu by mail5.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id KAA17946; Wed, 26 Jul 1995 10:47:20 -0700 Received: (from postman@localhost) by po8.andrew.cmu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA07172; Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:44:15 -0400 Received: via switchmail; Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:44:13 -0400 (EDT) Received: from unix19.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:43:05 -0400 (EDT) Received: from unix19.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:42:51 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mms.4.60.Jan.26.1995.18.43.47.sun4c.411.EzMail.2.0.CUILIB.3.45.SNAP.NOT.LINKED.unix19.andrew.cmu.edu.sun4c.411 via MS.5.6.unix19.andrew.cmu.edu.sun4c_411; Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:42:51 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 13:42:51 -0400 (EDT) From: "Declan B. McCullagh" To: Fight Censorship Mailing List Subject: Letter to Trib-Review & Miscellanea Cc: Erik.Altmann@cs.cmu.edu References: Status: RO X-Status: * Quote of the Day: "To save his own skin, Sirbu should have bought Marty a one-way ticket to someplace in the Pacific with a casino and lots of GIFs of naked women to keep him occupied -- and no Net access." * The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story Tuesday detailing Michael Mehta's accusations against Rimm. It was written by Dennis Roddy and Bill Schackner, who are on this list via email->fax. While it didn't go into details of Mehta's paper, it did cover the parallels well. But one section was odd: A CMU teaching associate cited in Rimm's study said she believed that Rimm, an undergraduate when the study was conducted, was meticulous about acknowledging outside research. ``As a matter of fact, I think he was more intent on overfootnoting everything,'' said Carolyn Speranza. Speranza, a specialist in digitally created art, assisted the Rimm study by helping to analyze video images taken from computer bulletin boards and the Internet, a worldwide computer linkup. I wonder why the P-G didn't say that Speranza actually has a faculty rank at CMU -- and was Marty's girlfriend. * Now that the Ethics Inquisitors are active on CMU's campus, the question is -- who walks first, OJ, Christopher Reeve or Marty Rimm? (stolen, poorly, from a post on the WELL) * A source in the Pittsburgh media says: "Rimm, the researcher, has an attorney. I suspect he'll use it. He wants to sue the pants off of some people." * Who does he want to sue? CMU would be the best bet, if they're thinking of academic disciplinary action against him. But courts are reluctant to intervene in academic disciplinary decisions. (Supreme Court in Board of Curators v. Horowitz) -Declan ---------- Forwarded message begins here ---------- From: Erik Altmann Date: Wed, 26 Jul 95 12:49:40 EDT To: bb+graffiti.bboard-censorship@andrew.cmu.edu Subject: Re: Request for an explanation Sender: altmann@ALECTRO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU No answer from Christiano yet, though I did walk over a hardcopy. Maybe he's got a committee working on it. I did get a call from the Trib, confirming the letter below. I forgot to ask how much they'll edit it. I wonder ... do you think ... could Christiano file UDC charges against me? I bet there's no policy that says he couldn't. ------- start of forwarded message ------- From: Erik Altmann To: letters@tribune-review.com Date: Sun, 23 Jul 95 17:31:34 EDT Subject: Letter to the editor Dear Editor, The Tribune-Review reports today that the provost of Carnegie Mellon University has launched a review of what is now nationally known as "the CMU Study" of pornography on the internet. (Because Carnegie Mellon has taken no steps to disavow its sponsorship of this study, I will continue to refer to it as "the CMU study".) As a CMU student and computer science researcher, I'm grateful that public attention is turning to the problems with this study. However, there is an important detail that your article did not mention. The provost, Paul Christiano, was aware of the CMU study long before it was published. Last November, Christiano used the CMU study to justify banning public computer bulletin boards which he found distasteful from CMU computers. He stood behind the study throughout the months leading up to its publication, during which other researchers were prevented from having access to it. When the study finally became public, there was a reaction from CMU faculty and students who may have been used as human subjects without their consent, in violation of university, professional, and federal government guidelines. Only when this reaction grew into an outcry did Christiano begin an investigation. We all have an interest in preventing a recurrence of quack science being used to justify censorship. Therefore it's critical that the role of the CMU administration in the CMU study be carefully examined. Erik Altmann Graduate Student School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University ------- end -------