From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Banned '92 selection criteria
Originator: kadie@eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 19:26:04 GMT

00hfstahlke@bsu-ucs.uucp writes:

[...]
>Let's also recognize that the "Banned...1992" listing was simply a
>listing of extracts from postings received over the year.  I don't
>know that we have much idea of the judgment that underlay either the
>summarizing process, in itself a creative act, or the decision as to
>what constitutes a case of censorship, also a creative act.  In other
>words, neither what was contained in the listing nor the postings it
>was based on tell the whole story.
[...]

I found most of the material by reading through all the 1992 abstracts
of CAF-News. Material for CAF-News is selected by an editor (sometimes
me, but usually not) from the material in CAF-Talk. (I'm enclosing a
reference to the CAF-News editorial policy.) Anyone can post to
CAF-Talk. Also, material is often reposted there (usually by me) from
other newsgroups. Thus, ideally I looked at every incident (or alleged
incident) reported via Netnews. This ideal may have been missed, but
if so, I don't think by very much; I haven't gotten any re-reports of
incidents since posting the list, only reports of incidents that
hadn't been mentioned before.

As for my selection criteria, I tried to be inclusive and to use
library policy as my standard. I think the only incidents of
restriction not listed were 1) where the material was likely removed
because of cost (usually disk space) 2) the restrictions were on
display of sexually offensive material in public terminal rooms or
public offices where it would be very difficult for the offended
person to avoid the material.

Of course, even these exceptions are subjective. The Administration at
U. of Nebraska at Lincoln originally claimed to be motivated by disk
space considerations. Later, however, the CRC director said
(admitted?)  that "pornography was factor" (quoting the school
newspaper). U. of Washington also said that disk space was there
motivation, but acted just after being interviewed by the Seattle
_Post Intelligencer_. Our current discussion about .plan 's and
process names shows the difference of opinion on exception #2.

- Carl

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

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

=================
banned.1991
=================
A list of computer material that was banned at universities during (or
before) 1991. It summarizes incidents and policies at Ohio State U.,
the U. of Illinois (two campuses), Case Western U., Boston U., U. of
Waterloo, U.  of Toledo, Western Washington U., Iowa State U.,
Pennsylvania State U., U. of Texas, U. of Newcastle, James Madison U.,
U. of Wisconsin, and others.

=================
admin/editorial.policy
=================
This note tries to answer questions about the editorial policy
of CAF-news.

=================
library/bill-of-rights.ala
=================
The Library Bill of Rights from the American Library Association.

=================
library/diversity.ala
=================
"Diversity in Collection Development"

An interpretation by the American Library Association of the "Library
Bill of Rights"

It says that collections should be inclusive, not exclusive. And that
materials should cover the needs and interest of all patrons. "This
includes materials that reflect political, economic, religious,
social, minority, and sexual issues."

=================
banned.1992
=================
A list of computer material that was banned or challenged in academia
in 1992. The institutions mentioned are:

Ball State U., Boston U. (2), Carnegie Mellon U., German universities,
Iowa State U. (3), Irish universities, James Madison U., Middle East
Technical U., North Dakota State U., Pennsylvania State U., Princeton,
Simon Fraser U., U. of British Columbia, U. of California at Berkeley
*, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U. of Manitoba, U. of
Massachusetts at Boston, U. of Nebraska at Lincoln, U. of Newcastle,
U. of Ottawa, U. of Texas, U. of Toledo, U. of Toronto *, U. of
Wyoming, United Kingdom Net, Virginia Public Education Network,
Virginia Tech, Western Washington U. (& U. of Washington), Wilfrid
Laurier U. (2), Williams College **

========
* Site of an unsuccessful challenge
** College not directly involved.


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

These document(s) are 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/banned.1991
  pub/academic/admin/editorial.policy
  pub/academic/library/bill-of-rights.ala
  pub/academic/library/diversity.ala
  pub/academic/banned.1992

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 banned.1991
send acad-freedom/admin editorial.policy
send acad-freedom/library bill-of-rights.ala
send acad-freedom/library diversity.ala
send acad-freedom banned.1992
-- 
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.admin.policy,alt.censorship,soc.college