From: edsall@iastate.edu (David M Edsall)
Subject: Developments at ISU
Summary: Breakthrough at ISU
Keywords: censorship, responsibility,legalities
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 21:50:22 GMT




For those following the ISU USENET censorship issue:


   This note is for the sake of those unable to attend the SEF meeting on
January 4, 1993. What we have is the following and it seems promising:


   I have been informed by Doug Houghton that the University wishes to pursue
our original idea of full feed/no feed accompanied by a user responsibility
registration process. This decision was arrived at during a meeting between
the new Provost, Doug, George Strawn, Reid Crawford and Nancy Eaton two weeks
ago. I was told that Dr. Strawn agreed to present this info to SEF. What is
necessary is the following:


   (a) Software ( which we have written already ) to deal with user
       registration

   (b) The disclaimer to be presented to the prospective reader online, which
       will be drafted by the University in conjunction with the State Attorney
       General's office for legal interpretations and SEF ( depending on who
       you talk to, see below for more info ). The final approval would rest
       with the Attorney General and the university administration. The
       document would contain proper wording and examples to inform the user
       of their rights and responsibilities.


   I attempted to follow this up by a visit with the provost but was denied an
audience. It was suggested that I talk to Reid Crawford instead. In speaking
with Reid, I was told the same thing that Doug had told me with the exception
of the fact that SEF would NOT be given the power to approve or disapprove of
the final wording of the document. I was told that as an ad hoc group we had
an *impact* on what has happened but that we have no real power.


   Rather than wait for Dr. Strawn to see us, I decided to see him and did so
this afternoon along with Rodney Schuler. We were told once again what Doug
had told me earlier but in contradiction to what Reid said and in agreement
with what Doug said, we were told that SEF *would* have a voice in the final
decision, i.e. it would be a decision to which all parties would need to
agree.  Dr. Strawn told us that a committee had been established to determine
the viability of our software and which would also propose their own software.
In addition, we were told that we would need to draft our own version of the
disclaimer. Mike Godwin of EFF has already been contacted and I presume he is
working on a copy now. I gave him Reid Crawford's number and address and I
suggested the same to Reid. The two intend to communicate on this issue. Reid
will provide a copy of his version to EFF to critique and EFF will provide a
version to Reid for the same purpose.


   Dr. Strawn agreed with us that it is necessary to begin moving on this. The
sooner we had everything in place, the sooner a decision can be reached,
hopefully by this semester. We have agreed to try to have enough ready for a
meeting by the first week of classes this semester so that all interested
parties may comment.




    The SEF meeting:


    The following was decided at the January 4 SEF meeting but will not be
ratified until voted upon (a vote to be taken electronically due to time
constraints and geographical limitations of members ):


    The following is the procedure by which the "buck will be passed" for
ANYONE wishing access to the ISU news servers ( such as news.iastate.edu ).
Individual Project Vincent sysop's, the VAX sysops and the HDS sysops and the
Comp Center will NOT be given the option to choose full feed or no feed. If
you wish to use the service, you agree to the following:


   (1) All "trusted" machines get a full feed by default
   (2) A trusted machine is one of:

       a) A single user machine in a "secure" area where the owner of said
          machine takes full responsibility for any illegal use
          Example: PC running a news client wishing access to ISU news servers

       b) A multi-user machine which provides a user authentication and a
          user-based news reading registration method. If this is not the case
          and the applicant for the service claims that it is, full
          responsibility for an illegalities then rests with the applicant.
          Otherwise, it rests with the users registered. If the ISU news
          servers are being used in such an environment, the applicant is to
          be required to use the ISU disclaimer mentioned above in their
          user news-reading registration process.

    Since the software has been written for PV and Vax platforms, these
machines are already "trusted" machines provided the software is approved and
thus 2-b is satisfied. 2 was added an decided upon by SEF this evening in 
order to accomodate possible future expansions in ISU computational
technologies. 

   Thus, the user is authenticated by the host and the host is "trusted" by
the news servers. In this way, the users are allowed access to a full feed.
Authentication of the user is provided if the user has accepted the terms of
the disclaimer.


   What needs to be done by YOU is the following:



   If you agree to the above send a YES to edsall@iastate.edu in the Subject
line. If you disagree send a NO. If you have suggestions, post them or send
them to cuffed@iastate.edu


    We need to push hard and make ourselves heard if we wish to get what we
have worked so hard for. The end is in sight but we need to continue working.
We need to keep an eye on the administration and make sure they listen and if
they don't, embarrass them until they do. It is this embarassment that has
gotten us this far. We need publicity. We plan to invite the Daily to the
meeting later this month and announce this tentative agreement. If we agree to
the above, we need to make sure that the "trusted host" scheme is NOT used to
reinstate a set of exclusive feeds such as we have now. Most importantly, we
need PEOPLE. Get more people involved and show them what we have accomplished.
Finally, we need to stay cool and watch our asses. It isn't over till we have
it in writing, folks.
   Rodney Schuler has agreed to act as a liason with the admins until replaced
by an SEF suggestion. Dave Buckley will be our contact with EFF until
replaced.Me, I'm going back to Europe Thursday and wish you all the luck in
the world.  You deserve this.


  
    Dave

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