Message-ID: <ciiKxfy00VBC4_81RQ@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu,  3 Nov 1994 18:16:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Adam Glass <ag3c+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Content-Type: X-BE2; 12
If-Type-Unsupported: alter
To: Bulletin Board Administration
    <bb+graffiti.bboard-censorship@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Fwd: Sexually Explicit Bboards (FINAL ANSWER 85.315)
Cc: 

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This is what Advisor sent me in response to an "inquiry" that I made.


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Date: Thu,  3 Nov 1994 16:06:08 -0500

From: Advisor Filing System <advisor+@andrew.cmu.edu>

To: ag3c+@andrew.cmu.edu

Subject: Re: Fwd: Sexually Explicit Bboards (FINAL ANSWER 85.315)


Over the past few months a Carnegie Mellon research project has been 

studying the use of sexually explicit bulletin boards.  It appears 

that, due to their content, the act of carrying a small number of 

Netnews bulletin boards may be illegal in Pennsylvania.  In the 

interest of free speech, the university carries a very wide range 

of bulletin boards for the community with no monitoring of their 

contents; however, it is a criminal offense to knowingly disseminate 

sexually explicit material to minors or obscene material to people of 

any age.  We have to be particularly careful because some of the users

of our bulletin board system are under the age of 18.


This issue was discussed at the Academic Council on October 26. It was 

agreed that, in order to comply with the law, the university will not 

carry any bulletin board whose stated purpose is to distribute sexually 

explicit or obscene material, or that is known to contain a high 

percentage of such material. In other aspects our policies concerning 

access to bulletin boards are unchanged.  We will continue to mount 

all the Netnews bulletin boards that the law permits and will not 

monitor their content.


Computing Services will implement this policy on Tuesday, November 

8th by removing the following bulletin board trees.


alt.binaries.pictures.erotica

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.*

alt.binaries.pictures.tasteless

alt.sex

alt.sex.*

rec.arts.erotica


The following are answers to common questions regarding the removal 

of these illegal bulletin boards which we hope will help you to 

understand the rationale regarding this change:


Q.  Is this censorship?

A.  The criteria for removing a bboard is not whether the material 

    is offensive, but whether making the material available to minors 

    violates criminal law.


Q.  Who made this decision?

A.  It was proposed by Bill Arms, Vice President for Computing Services, 

    and approved by the Academic Council.


Q.  Why now?

A.  A Carnegie Mellon study has identified the problem.  As soon as the 

    problem became known, the university had a legal obligation to act.


Q.  Why is rec.arts.erotica being removed?

A.  The material on rec.arts.erotica is sexually explicit and cannot be 

    distributed to minors.  There is no practical way to restrict minors 

    from accessing this information, short of removing the bulletin boards.


Jarrod Siket


advisor+@andrew.cmu.edu


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