From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
Subject: [news.admin.policy]  Follow-up: illegal material in newsgroups
Date: 14 Aug 92 05:37:16 GMT
Organization: EFF mail-news gateway
Originator: daemon@eff.org


Newsgroups: news.admin.policy
From: jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz)
Subject:  Follow-up: illegal material in newsgroups
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 14:42:20 GMT

Less than 24 hours after posting my initial article raising this issue,
there are about 30 follow-ups in news.admin.policy and I have received
again as many replies via e-mail.

Many excellent points have been raised.  A surprisingly small percentage
of the total traffic was pure "you're a fascist censor" noise.

To summarize, after reading other people's views on the issue, I have
decided that for the time being I will continue my current policy of
carrying everything, and if I am challenged on it by my superiors, will
strongly recommend AGAINST restricting the flow of News through our
system in any way.

The main reasons for my decission are...

o  A considerable quantity of copyrighted material is posted to groups
   other than a.b.p.e.*, so monitoring groups to determine which groups
   carry illegal material, and which don't, appears impractical.

o  It seems likely that the legal responsibility for distributing
   copyrighted material rests with the poster.

o  There seems to be a good chance that a "common-carrier" type argument
   can be applied, and by making policy decissions on what to carry and
   what not to carry I'm more likely to hurt than help this argument.

o  If (when) this issue does result in law-suits, it is unlikely to be
   here at my small institution, and more likely will involve an organization
   such as UUNET which is already prepared for this eventuality and has
   formalized it's policy on the issue.

Those are my personal reasons for my decission, but the issue remains.

I think we will do well to discuss further what the impact on the
Altnet and USENET will be when this issue does get exposed to public
scrutiny.  Maybe one should start a directed campaign to discourage
the posting of copyrighted materials?  (After all, there does appear
to be a fair amount of "amateur" pornography posted to a.b.p.e which
can continue).  Not that I would expect such a campaign to have much
immediate impact, but again, I think it might in the best interest of
the Altnet to demonstrate that the majority of it's readership does
not condone it's use for the distribution of illegal materials.

I would like to repeat once again that I'm very much against censorship,
and that my primary reason for bring this issue up in the first place
is because I fear that the illegality of the materials under discussion
will serve as wellcome ammunition for those who would advocate broad
censorship of everything they do not like.  In fact, I'm sure it has
already happened at several sites that the entire Altnet was discontinued
because someone successfully argued that it was being used to distribute
illegal materials.
--
Jurgen Botz                  |   Internet: JBotz@mtholyoke.edu
Academic Systems Consultant  |     Bitnet: JBotz@mhc.bitnet
Mount Holyoke College        |      Voice: (US) 413-538-2375 (daytime)
South Hadley, MA, USA        | Snail Mail: J. Botz, 01075-0629
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk