From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Chain letters?
Originator: kadie@eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 01:57:03 GMT

cwis@cwis.unomaha.edu (Campus Wide Information Service) writes:

[..]
>	Hi.  Please allow me to introduce myself:  I'm the bad guy in this
>scenario (i.e. the system administrator).
[...]

That you are willing to discuss the policy in public suggests that
you are not a bay guy.

[...]
>Mailing it to recipients one or twenty at a time is far less
>efficient than posting it to a newsgroup and effecting site-wide (or
>possibly world-wide) distribution. [...] Content aside, since the
>distribution mechanism specifically chosen was far from the optimum
>available, we are now looking at a resource abuse issue.  The policy
>on our campus (to which users here are required to agree before
>obtaining an account) specifically prohibits resource abuse.
[...]

Did the joke chain letter actually cause a significant (or even
noticeable) disruption? I would think that the joke chain letter's
effects would be small compared to everyday e-mailing list traffic.

>Further, the same policy prohibits non-academic use of the system.
>We have been very generous to date with our interpretation of what
>constitutes academic use;

By one way of looking at it, you are being generious, but another you
are censoring via selective enforcement (i.e. by prohibiting many
things, but only enforcing the prohibition against the things you find
offensive.)

>if you can explain to me the academic purpose of that letter, I would
>be very interested in hearing about it.
[...]

Freedom of expression is very academic. The Joint Statement on Rights
and Freedoms of Students says:

   "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."

and (in the contect of inviting speakers to campus):

    "The institutional control of campus facilities should not
     be used as a device of censorship."

- Carl

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)

=================
academic/student.freedoms.aaup
=================
* Student Freedoms (AAUP)

Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students -- This is the main
U.S. statement on student academic freedom.

=================
academic/speech-codes.aaup
=================
* Speech Codes (AAUP)

On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes Expression - An
official statement of the American Association of University
Professors (AAUP)

It says in part: "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be
banned or forbidden.  No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful
or disturbing that it may not be expressed."

=================
faq/censorship-and-harassment
=================
* 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?
 
a: No. The federal courts have said that harassing speech is different
...

=================
caf
=================
* About the CAF mailing lists (and newsgroups)

A description of the comp-academic-freedom-talk mailing list. It is a
free-forum for the discussion of questions such as: How should general
principles of academic freedom (such as freedom of expression, freedom
to read, due process, and privacy) be applied to university computers
and networks? How are these principles actually being applied? How can
the principles of academic freedom as applied to computers and
networks be defended?

=================
=================

If you have gopher, you can browse the CAF archive with the command
   gopher gopher.eff.org

These document(s) are also available by anonymous ftp (the preferred
method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp
to ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):

  pub/academic/academic/student.freedoms.aaup
  pub/academic/academic/speech-codes.aaup
  pub/academic/faq/censorship-and-harassment
  pub/academic/caf

To get the file(s) by 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/academic student.freedoms.aaup
send acad-freedom/academic speech-codes.aaup
send acad-freedom/faq censorship-and-harassment
send acad-freedom caf




-- 
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,uno.cwis