From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: ONE YEAR AGO: New news censorship policy at Iowa State University
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 04:34:45 GMT

In article <BzH8sH.B52@news.iastate.edu> linda@iastate.edu (Linda Hutchison) writes:

>Carl, I suppose I'm one of the "bad guys", being part of the Comp Ctr
>administration, and I can tell you that here at Iowa State University
>                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>we're not particularly affected or concerned with articles that appear in the
>Daily Iowan -- the University of Iowa student newspaper.
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linda, I don't think Carl is calling you a "bad guy." 

Moreover, I know from my own experience as editor of a college newspaper
in Texas that newspapers on one campus often affected news coverage and
policymaking at another campus.

>As with many of the people posting reactions to the usenet policy at ISU, you
>are unqualified to comment on why or how the policy originated since
>you were not at any of the meetings where the policy was discussed and were in
>no way involved in the development or implementation of the policy.

I doubt that Carl is as ignorant as all that. But I can attest that I am
not, since I investigated the Iowa State controversy, at the request of
Iowa State students, when it first arose. It is difficult to dispute
Carl's characterization of the decisionmaking process--namely, that the
so-called fears of lawsuits and prosecutions were conjured up *after* the
decision was made to kill certain newsgroups, in order to justify that
censorship as something other than content-based censorship.

When I and others pointed out that such newsgroups as alt.drugs were in no
sense violative of any state or federal law, the alt.drugs groups, as I
recall, were restored.

>We were and still are dealing with interpretation of state laws and are acting
>in response to recommendations from the university's legal advisors.

I simply don't believe the legal advisers came knocking on your door and
asked you to kill those newsgroups. I believe that quite the reverse
happened: that these legal advisers (who, apparently, seem confused about
the supremacy of U.S. Constitutional otections over state law) were
summoned to justify the decision of computer policymakers to kill some
newsgroups.

>As long as the director of the center, in concert with the university
>lawyers, the Affirmative Action Office, the Dean of Students Office, etc.
>believes the policy is necessary as it stands to conform with Iowa law, they
>will have my support.

Please explain which state law in Iowa has ever been construed to bar
discussions about sex, such as those that appear in the alt.sex hierarchy.
Sexual-harassment law clearly does not apply, since such discussions would
have to be inflicted on an unwilling reader in order to qualify as
interpersonal or "hostile environment" sexual harassment.

You have a responsibility as a citizen not to blindly accept the statement
to that this is what the legal advisers (whoever they may be) say the law
requires. It takes minimal research to discover that the First Amendment
bars the banning of non-obscene discussions of sexual matters.

Tell me, Linda: if legal advisers told you to help burn the copies of
Joyce's ULYSSES, Lawrence's LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER, and Nabokov's LOLITA
in the Iowa State library, would you blindly accept their recommendation?

>A fact that keeps getting totally ignored is that no student, faculty or staff
>member is denied access to any newsgroup.  Get a username on the HDS.  I agree
>the newsreader there is less fully-featured than the newsreaders on PV and
>other systems.  But the fact remains that accounts are available and access is
>unrestricted on that platform.

It sounds here as if you are saying that it has been made more difficult
to read news in the formerly banned newsgroups. This looks like censorship
to me.



--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"I'm waiting for the one-man revolution
mnemonic@eff.org| The only one that's coming."
(617) 864-0665  |                           
EFF, Cambridge  |                   --Robert Frost 
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk