Message-Id: <0iiMWD30GRliE8o7d=@chaos>
Date: Thu,  3 Nov 1994 17:04:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Jay Laefer <jay@gordian.com>
To: bb+graffiti.bboard-censorship@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Fwd: Newsgroups at Carnegie Mellon
References: <ciiMTdq00WD5Q3XrEV@andrew.cmu.edu>

I sent this to the EFF today.  Since I'm no longer directly affiliated
with CMU, would anyone be willing to be the contact point instead?

	-Jay

-------------------------------------------

Date: Thu,  3 Nov 1994 20:01:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Jay Laefer <jl57+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: ssteele@eff.org
Subject: Newsgroups at Carnegie Mellon

Ms. Steele:

Carnegie Mellon University has just announced that on Tuesday,
November 8th, they will remove the following newsgroups from the
campus system:

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica
alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.*
alt.binaries.pictures.tasteless
alt.sex
alt.sex.*
rec.arts.erotica

The stated reason for their removal is that minors (under 18) have
access to these newsgroups.  According to the University, Pennsylvania
law prohibits the distribution of "sexually explicit" materials to
minors.  Therefore, to prevent criminal liability, the University
intends to prevent the general campus community, the vast majority of
whom are 18 or over, from reading these newsgroups.

It is, as yet, unclear what the University will do about local bboards
that contain "sexually explicit" material.

I do not know if anyone from Carnegie Mellon has contacted the EFF
about this yet, or what, if anything, the EFF can do to help the
Carnegie Mellon community do to fight this.  My own position is
somewhat tenuous.  I am a Carnegie Mellon alum (BS Math/CS '93) who no
longer resides in Pittsburgh, and my computer account is sponsored by
Computing Services, the division that has initiated this policy.  I
can, however, put you in touch with current students and staff members
at the University and would be happy to do so.

I am appending several items, including the University's announcement
and their form letter reply to inquiries.

I appreciate your time and attention to this matter.

		-Jay Laefer
		jay@gordian.com
		laefer+@cmu.edu

--------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu,  3 Nov 1994 12:00:59 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Joseph Kuszewski <lizard+@CMU.EDU>
To: RBBs <restrictbb+official.computing-news@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Sexually Explicit Bboards

During the next few days, the university will be withdrawing some
netnews bulletin board subscriptions from the public computer systems. 
This action is in response to a new university policy which is outlined
below.

The university's policy is to carry a very wide range of bulletin boards
for the community, with no monitoring of the bulletin board contents. 
However, Pennsylvania laws prohibits us from carrying bulletin boards
that are known to be used for the distribution of sexually explicit or
obscene material.  It is against the law for anybody to knowingly
distribute sexually explicit materials to people under the age of 18, or
obscene materials to people of any age.

Issues of free speech are always important to a university.  Therefore,
the only criterion that will be used when considering the withdrawal of
a bulletin board is that either the intended purpose for which it was
established or its primary use (majority of the posts) makes it illegal
for Computing Services to provide access to the bulletin board.  Because
the university does not monitor the contents of bulletin boards, there
is always the chance that sexually explicit or obscene material may be
posted and available.  Any reported incidents of such materials will be
handled on a case by case basis.

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

Bob Kuszewski
Computing Services

---------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu,  3 Nov 1994 16:06:08 -0500
From: Advisor Filing System <advisor+@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