Tim May writes:
Several universities are taking steps to limit student and faculty access to the Internet. Carnegie-Mellon U. is limiting access to a number of newsgroups--and has said that students who attempt to circumvent the restrictions by using gopher and such, will be disciplined. McGill U., in Canada, is revising its code of behavior to allow random searches of student files, limits on access, etc.
I guess I've been asleep. What prey tell in any USENET group is so evil that a university (bastion of free speech) should wish to censor it ? I can understand high schools and especially middle schools censoring some of the alt.sex crap, but what is there on USENET that is not suitable for college age and older ? And why on earth should they censor faculty/grad student access ? Aren't faculty/grad students assumed to be highly responsible adults ? Hell, back in the late 60's when I was in school we actually had a real for-credit course in pornographic literature offered ... turns out there is quite a serious literary tradition in this arena (DH Lawrence, Henry Miller, Anias Nin etc). I guess this should mean some more business to my friends at Pagesat, which broadcasts a completely uncensored real time feed of the USENET over a small dish Ku band satellite link to all of North America. And they are a real licensed common carrier (their principle business is wide area paging services) so they can't be held responsible for the contents of the traffic either. Dave Emery