From declanm@netcom.com Wed Sep 27 15:55:37 1995 Return-Path: Received: from po7.andrew.cmu.edu by mail5.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id PAA06627; Wed, 27 Sep 1995 15:09:02 -0700 Received: (from postman@localhost) by po7.andrew.cmu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA08523; Wed, 27 Sep 1995 10:37:37 -0400 Received: via switchmail for fight-censorship+@andrew.cmu.edu; Wed, 27 Sep 1995 10:37:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from po2.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Wed, 27 Sep 1995 10:35:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from netcom22.netcom.com (netcom22.netcom.com [192.100.81.136]) by po2.andrew.cmu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id KAA06793 for ; Wed, 27 Sep 1995 10:35:54 -0400 Received: by netcom22.netcom.com (8.6.12/Netcom) id HAA14124; Wed, 27 Sep 1995 07:32:38 -0700 Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 07:32:38 -0700 (PDT) From: D B McCullagh Subject: WELL: CMU's Knowledge of Rimm Study Timeline To: fight-censorship@andrew.cmu.edu Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: [The second half of this message is a timeline describing who at CMU knew what when about Marty's study. -Declan] --- Topic 1067 [media]: Martin Rimm and the Cyberporn Scare #867 of 895: Declan McCullagh (declan) Mon Sep 25 '95 (07:49) 32 lines Marty came to CMU in the fall of 1993 (note creation date of his account): user.mr6e 1970771732 RW 1769 K On-line VICE9.FS.ANDREW.CMU.EDU /vicepa RWrite 1970771732 ROnly 0 Backup 1970771734 MaxQuota 12000 K Creation Sat Aug 7 13:14:00 1993 Last Update Sun Sep 24 14:49:45 1995 He submitted his adult BBS research idea for funding circa March 15, 1994. He asked Computing Services to create his adultbbs[1-6] project volumes that summer (June 29) after his grant was approved by the provost's office: ece.adultbbs2 1970807753 RW 21767 K On-line VICE14.FS.ANDREW.CMU.EDU /vicepa RWrite 1970807753 ROnly 0 Backup 1970807755 MaxQuota 50000 K Creation Wed Jun 29 17:51:53 1994 Last Update Tue Aug 8 17:33:22 1995 2 accesses in the past day (i.e., vnode references) Another division of CMU found out about Marty's research when an unusual request for 300 MB of project volume space was bounced up to the vice president for Computing Services, Bill Arms. High-level CMU administrators knew about the details of Marty's research all along, and were the first people to defend him publicly. Marty used them for cover too. (Unlike Seth, they probably knew it but were willing to whore themselves for a bit of press coverage.) , would Marty's study have caught your eye if it hadn't sparked CMU's Usenet censorship, the rally, and so on? [ped replies, saying he's not sure, but that's when it caught his eye -dbm] Topic 1067 [media]: Martin Rimm and the Cyberporn Scare #872 of 895: Mike Godwin (mnemonic) Mon Sep 25 '95 (15:09) 18 lines Declan writes: "High-level CMU administrators knew about the details of Marty's research all along, and were the first people to defend him publicly." I'm not sure about Declan's use of "the details" or about his use of "all along." It is certainly the case that the CMU administration knew about Marty's study as of September 1994. What precisely they knew is another question. Moreover, Marty is talking about the study as such when he's corresponding with Seth Finkelstein in April of 1994 -- it's unclear that members of the CMU administration knew about the study then (except to the extent that Marty's nominal faculty advisers and the administrators of the SURG grants knew about it). Topic 1067 [media]: Martin Rimm and the Cyberporn Scare #882 of 895: Declan McCullagh (declan) Mon Sep 25 '95 (22:17) 64 lines In #872, Mike wonders who knew at CMU knew details when. When I say that the CMU admin knew about his study "all along," I mean for the last year. Let's look at a timeline. My best information says that Marty approached the vice-provost's office for SURG funding in early 1994. At this time, the study concentrated on adult BBSs. Lazarus [associate provost] saw this as a flagship project that would increase the visibility of the SURG program and brought her husband, Sirbu [ini chair], in as Marty's advisor. [who knew as of spring 94: associate provost, information networking institute head] Sirbu's specialities, as listed in CMU's Research Directory, are: "Telecommunications technology, policy, and management, regulation and industrial structure; communications networks and standards." His advisor's fields of interest may have led Marty to focus more on the Internet and Usenet. Or perhaps the Net was becoming hot enough an issue that Marty decided to broaden his scope. (He demonstrated remarkable prescience in Dec 94 in claiming the debate truly was about child pornography.) Arms (vp comp serv) has a history of trying to yank dirty pix off CMU's news servers. He tried before CMU's human relations commission early last year, apparently with the degrading-to-women line. In June 1994, as I mentioned in #867, he heard about Marty's study -- a censor's ideal tool, unbiased academic research! (I don't know if he had anything to do with Marty's mail to the president or not.) [summer 94: associate provost, chair of ini, vp computing services] In September, Marty emailed the president of CMU his "does CMU have any policies dealing with criminally illegal pix" email. At the president's direction, Steinberg [vice provost] met with Marty and his advisors in a hastily-arranged meeting the same day. I believe the university attorney was consulted at this point. [early sep 94: associate provost, chair of ini, vp computing services, president, vice provost, provost, univ atty] By late September, just about everyone in the administration knew. Sirbu's mail gives us Hale (vp univ rel) and Murphy (dean of students). In a series of meetings, Marty and Sirbu brief the administration on their findings. Marty also gives them his 1,000-word abstract, complete with mention of all the *philias, "6,432,297 images," and "the wide circulation of paraphilic imagery" online. [late sep 94: associate provost, chair of ini, vp computing services, president, vice provost, provost, vp univ rel, dean of students, univ atty] In October, the Academic Council met to discuss what to do with the idea that CMU supposedly was "knowing" about the contents of Usenet dirty-pix newsgroups, thanks to Marty's mail. Scared by Arms' claims of criminal liability and "I don't want to be locked up" assertions, they give him the go-ahead to yank the newsgroups. [oct 94: associate provost, chair of ini, vp computing services, president, vice provost, provost, dean of students, univ atty, academic deans, sei and cmri directors, vice presidents, univ librarian, faculty senate chair] On November 3, CMU announces its Usenet dirty-pix and dirty-stories ban, and everyone learns about Marty Rimm, cyberporn researcher. ###