For purely accidental reasons, some newsgroups will inevitably be missing from some servers. When the need for a missing newsgroup is pointed out, the University will, in general, add it to the available set if it is practical to do so. The University recognizes that personal standards of taste differ widely, but obscenity is defined by laws and court decisions, not just personal taste. Under the law, it is illegal to publish or redistribute certain kinds of sexually explicit material. Accordingly, the University will not put itself in jeopardy by redistributing newsgroups that, to the best of its knowledge, regularly contain material that violates applicable obscenity laws.
Laws differ in other states.
Unlike other forms of speech, obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, and courts have consistently upheld governments' right to regulate it. The University must also be sensitive to the possibility that the availability of sexually explicit discussion topics could be claimed to create a hostile or offensive work environment and hence potentially violate the established University policy prohibiting sexual harassment. Other illegal content. The University will not put itself in jeopardy by knowingly redistributing such newsgroups. Some newsgroups require quantities of disk space and communication bandwidth out of proportion to their value to the University.