From: Rick.Horowitz@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Rick Horowitz)
Subject: PHIL: Virtual Communities & Rights
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 14:26:30 GMT


Because the computer services department at our "university" has
decided that they may, with impunity, read student e-mail, go through
student files, block students from their accounts if they (computer
services) don't understand something the student is doing,
forcing the student to spend usually about one full day discovering
they can't get into their account, then going to UCS (university
computer services) to explain that they didn't do anything out of the
ordinary, etc., before they can get their privileges restored, which
privileges in most cases ARE restored when UCS realizes the student
hasn't done anything wrong, and because I'm a philosophy major now
forcibly thrust into the arena, I'd like to write a paper as a way of
working things out regarding thoughts on Ethics in Virtual
Communities.
 
Part of my feeling is summed up simply by saying that virtual
communities are no different than so-called real communities...they
just don't allow "face-to-face" contact of physical bodies.
Nevertheless, "personalities", and analogs for "towns", "states", or
whatever, seem to be socially-constituted in virtual realities just as
they appear to be in the so-called "real world."  Further, all rights,
privileges, and responsibilities persons in "real worlds" have, they
have in virtual worlds, also.
 
I have written, in response to a draconian policy statement which came
out recently, that
 
I note that there is really nothing in the UCS policy (a copy of which
I was sent) which directly addresses the rights of the users of the
system.  Apparently the university still does not understand that
whether they own the system or not, the mere existence of the system,
along with the fact that a significant group of users like ourselves
are given access creates a de facto virtual community.  With respect
to virtual communities instantiated on systems located in the United
States,  persons in those virtual communities should have all the same
rights under the Constitution of the United States as persons in
(actual) physical communities.  This is especially true if one
considers what Mary Hawkesworth calls 'socialized individualism' as
opposed to the view favored by UCS personnel, Republicans and other
fascistic folks who fail to understand how communities are constituted,
which is known as 'atomistic individualism.' The fact that the
university owns the system is no more justification for the
establishment of a community of rights-less individuals than the fact
that landlords own apartment buildings which they magnanimously rent
to poverty-striken tenants justifies making those tenants rights-less.
The fact that a farmer may own the land on which sie employs migrant
workers who then may also rent housing on that land from hir similarly
does not justify the maintenance of feudal systems.
 
Although I don't imagine I will ever run afoul of the University
guidelines for security, obscenity, etc., so I don't think I would
ever create a security risk, the way the current policy is written,
this will not ensure that my mail and files will not be invaded by superusers
who have taken it upon themselves to abrogate any rights I may have as
a citizen of the United States of America, in which country the
physical systems which instantiate the virtual communities through
which I move exist, and thus will not ensure that, without due process,
they will not violate specifically my rights to privacy.
 
In the founding of that great virtual system known as the United
States of America, the Constitution faced a formidable challenge
before attaining ratification: it had no Bill of Rights.  The very
same fear that we have as citizens of de facto virtual communities was
present to would-be citizens of actual geographical regions that would
be administered by the to-be-established (aforementioned) virtual
system.  Just as those individuals, so we live (part of) our lives in
virtual space ("the system,"  "the net" vs that other virtual space
"the United States of America") which is located in a physical domain
(the Computer vs, e.g. the North American continent) administered by
individuals who have an obligation to recognize that we have certain
inalienable rights, which rights include the pursuit of life, liberty,
and happiness.
 
UCS has already seen fit to make it their job to deprive us of
happiness, through the non-establishment (and occasional
DISestablishment) of certain services required for the smooth
functioning of our research projects.  Additionally, whereas the
founders of our country would have been forced to track us
down and arrest us to deprive us of our liberty, UCS only needs to
close our gateway to the net; whereas the founders of our country
would have been forced to track us down and hang us to deprive us of
our right to life, UCS needs only to change our passwords.  It is thus
incumbent upon UCS to take the appropriate steps to more clearly
delineate our rights, and their responsibilities, in order to ensure
that we live to (virtual) ripe old ages, complete many research
projects, write many papers, and thus hopefully obtain tenure, or
whatever else it is which we have ventured onto this frontier to
attain.
 
So much for what I've already thought of/said.
 
So, as part of the background for a more developed paper, I'd like to
read as much as I can about sociological and/or philosophical writing
about virtual communities, or anything else which might seem useful to
my project (like stuff on the social constitution of selves, a la
Burkitt).  I know that there have been dissertations done on the topic
of virtual communities, and even ftp'd one once, but I can't find it
now and don't remember how to get it.
 
If anyone can help me with this, or make other suggestions, please
e-mail me at "rhorowit@mondrian.csufresno.edu".
 
Thanks very much in advance for reading this and for any help you can
provide.
 
Rick Horowitz     CSUF, Philosophy     rhorowit@mondrian.csufresno.edu
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   The word "politics" is derived from the word "poly", meaning
  "many", and the word "ticks", meaning "blood sucking parasites".

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