🚀 go-pugleaf

This is an abstract for the most recent "Computers and Academic
Freedom News" (CAF-News). Information about CAF-News follows the
abstract. The full CAF-News is available via anonymous ftp or by
email. For ftp access, do an anonymous ftp to ftp.eff.org
(192.88.144.4). Get file "pub/academic/news/cafv02n30".
The full CAF-News is also available via email. Send email to
archive-server@eff.org. Include the line:

send caf-news cafv02n30

--- begin abstract ---
[Best of May 1992

========================== KEY ================================
The words after the numbers are a short PARAPHRASES of the articles,
or QUOTES from them, NOT AN OBJECTIVE SUMMARY and not necessarily my
opinion. Many of the paraphrases are based on earlier paraphrases by
Elizabeth, Paul, Andrew, and by guest editor A. Andrew Brennan.
===============================================================

Note 1 discusses some of the privacy risks of Florida State's new
ID/ATM/Calling card.

1. Florida State's new Seminole ACCESS system (for Fall '92) will
combine an ID card, ATM card, MCI calling card and a credit card all
in one.  While touting convenience and ease of use, it also permits
ACCESS offices to track an alarming number of an individual's
activities - it's all in the database!
    <9205121714.AA18456@systems.cc.fsu.edu>

Notes 2-3 discuss the events at Iowa State University in which the
Usenet group rec.arts.erotica was banned and in which a student's
computer access was revoked after he redistributed articles from that
group - there is, however, a happy ending to the story.

2. "When Iowa State University restricted alt.sex it violated the
principles of academic freedom. When it punished a student for
exercising his Constitutional right to free expression in a University
forum and imposed that punishment summarily in violation of that
student's Constitutional right to due process, it violated the law."
    <1992May6.033143.16713@eff.org>

3. From the student who had his account closed: "I have my account
back."
    <1992May8.064304.8364@news.iastate.edu>

Note 4-5 discuss Iowa State University's and the University of Nebraska
at Lincoln's rationalizations for censorship.

4. In reply to a previous assertion that "Iowa State and U. of
Nebraska are using the possibilities of NSF intervention as reason to
censor newsgroups.  Neither institutions are citing any other
university, state, or federal regulations for their actions."  ISU
admins have cited Chapter 728, [Iowa's Obscenity Law] though it
exempts libraries and educational institutions.
    <1992May11.132630.23905@news.iastate.edu>

5. UNL has said that had they continued to supply the "pornographic"
alt. hierarchy and someone had complained to the federal government,
UNL would have been required to prove that the groups met the criteria
of the NSFNET backbone service's acceptable use policy, or risk losing
NSFNET access. This is based on a misunderstanding of the NSFNET's
powers and of their policies.
    <1992May5.005813.281@eff.org>

Note 6 discusses the distribution of "alt" groups in the UK.

6. Usenet relies on the goodwill of those operating the servers which
distribute the news. "In the UK, the great majority of these systems
are operated by academic institutions, who seem to have decided not to
forward the 'alt.*' hierarchy, in particular, and a number of other
groups which are either judged to be 'unsuitable', or clearly only
relevant to, say, the US."
    <1992May19.093311.105@rdg.dec.com>

Notes 7-8 discuss censorship of the alt.sex.bondage newsgroup in the
light of recent events in Canada.

7. "The following is a transcription of a report broadcast on CBC
Radio's news program "The World at Six," aired 27 May 92 and monitored
on 9755 KHz at 2300 UTC. All spelling and punctuation has been added,
and may be incorrect."
    <telecom12.427.9@eecs.nwu.edu>

8. In a letter to the administrators at the University of Manitoba I
said, among other things, that "there are those who feel very strongly
that a University should never tell its people what they can't read."
    <1992May31.080939.25516@clarinet.com>


Notes 9-10 discuss trying to appeasing Canadian censors.

9. If we are to ensure that alt.sex.bondage is safe from the censors -
in Canada or elsewhere - we must make an effort to exclude depictions
of non-consensual sex from the newsgroup.
    <1992May29.174945.20946@cs.sfu.ca>

10. If we encourage self-censorship of alt.sex.bondage, and advocate
creating `alt.sex.nonconsensual' as both a forum for that genre of
writing and as a target for the Canadian censors, then we allow them a
foot in the door. We must stand by our right to write about what we
choose.
    <15492@autodesk.COM>

Notes 11-12 are about the how Usenet fits in with the university ideal
and the meaning of peer pressure in the context of Usenet.

11. "Usenet is *most positively* an invaluable resource.  If anything
represents the free flow of information and expression of ideas that
our institutions of higher learning purport to value, this is it."
    <1992May10.093635.27536@ccu.umanitoba.ca>

12. 'Peer pressure' is the Usenet community telling the jerk that he is
a jerk.  'Administrative sanction' is the sysadmins telling/forcing
the user to become normal - often by removing his 'voice.'
Administrative sanctions should be based on policies previously set
forth for the user community.  Usenet's 'peer pressure' becomes
necessary when it is realized how few administrative sanctions there
actually are and that even these are based on the individual
institution's policies - there is no network-wide police force.
    <uromrINNkco@agate.berkeley.edu>

- Carl]

--- end   abstract ---

CAF-News is a weekly digest of notes from CAF-talk.

CAF-News is available as newsgroup alt.comp.acad-freedom.news or via
email. If you read newsgroups but your site doesn't get
alt.comp.acad-freedom.news, (politely) ask your sys admin to
subscribe. For info on email delivery, send email to
archive-server@eff.org. Include the line

send acad-freedom caf

Back issues of CAF-News are available via anonymous ftp or via email.
Ftp to ftp.eff.org. The directory is pub/academic/news. For
information about email access to the archive, send an email note to
archive-server@eff.org. Include the lines:

send acad-freedom README
help
index

Disclaimer: This CAF-News abstract was compiled by a guest editor or a
regular editor (Paul Joslin, Elizabeth M. Reid, Adam C. Gross, Mark C.
Sheehan or Carl M. Kadie). It is not an EFF publication. The views an
editor expresses and editorial decisions he or she makes are his or
her own.


--
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =