(Message nnsc-pol-proc:213) Received: from linus.cc.iastate.edu by NNSC.NSF.NET id aa03408; 4 Dec 92 13:11 EST Received: by iastate.edu with sendmail-5.57/4.7 id ; Fri, 4 Dec 92 12:11:50 -0600 Message-Id: <9212041811.AA03492@iastate.edu> To: pol-proc-doc@NNSC.NSF.NET Subject: Iowa State University Usenet News Policy. Date: Fri, 04 Dec 92 12:11:48 CST From: Wayne Hauber Enclosed is the Iowa State University Usenet News policy I promised. Wayne Hauber | Programming Consultant/Network Information wjhauber@iastate.edu | Iowa State University Computation Center postmaster@iastate.edu | (515) 294-9890 -------------------------(cut here)-------------------------------- Usenet News Policy Iowa State University Computation Center February 17, 1992 Introduction The Iowa State University Computation Center has established a policy on the distribution of Usenet newsgroups. This policy, included later in this document, addresses challenges that have arisen due to the rapid evolution of the Usenet News service provided by the Computation Center. While most of these newsgroups provide a wealth of technical, research-based, and collateral material, a few groups may contain material whose use may be illegal under state or federal law, e.g., laws governing child pornography or sexual harassment statutes governing hostile environments. The purpose of this statement is to provide a brief overview of Usenet News, a description of challenges that accompany this technology, and the Computation Center's policy on this issue. Overview of Usenet News Usenet News is the term used to refer to a collection of computer- accessible newsgroups on a wide variety of topics. These newsgroups contain articles in either ASCII form (for text) or in encoded form (for graphics or sounds). These newsgroups do not come from a central repository with a central administration but are "passed around" by network-connected computer systems. With the advances in computer networking, thousands of computers are connected via worldwide networks. Any network-connected computer system can install the Usenet News software. That computer site then contacts other sites on a network near them and requests a "news feed". Once the news feed is established, the news software at each site begins communicating. Newsgroups on one site that do not exist on an adjacent site are automatically transmitted. In this manner, a new article generated on a single network-connected news system can eventually replicate itself to all network-connected news systems throughout the world. The large group of network-connected computer systems running Usenet News software is collectively called "Usenet". The files exchanged by the news software are called "newsgroups". These groups are named in a hierarchical fashion, with the name indicating the subject matter of the group. There are currently over 1,200 groups that an individual user can subscribe to. Major divisions of Usenet newsgroups are: comp Technical computing discussions news Usenet News discussions misc A "catch-all" category sci Science-related discussions soc Discussions on the society or its culture talk Talk on current issues (politics, environment, etc.) rec Hobby-related discussions Using the "comp" division as an example, there are groups included with such names as "comp.lang.fortran", "comp.sys.ibmpc", and "comp.unix.questions". Newsgroups come into a campus computer system, called the "news server", and are stored on the news server computer for later reading. The other computer systems on campus that wish to read newsgroups utilize software allowing them to read news off the news server via the campus network. In this manner, one copy of the news (which collectively occupies several hundred megabytes of information with frequent purging of old material) is kept for the entire campus. Individual news server systems are managed by "news administrators". Newsgroups are created by consensus of the news administrators on all systems. A procedure exists for suggesting a new group. If a new newsgroup is created, all sites have the option of enabling the newsgroup locally. Each site may be as selective as it wants in allowing the reception of individual groups into its system. In addition, the local news administrator has the option of creating "local groups", which are groups of local interest that are not passed on to other news systems. From the individual news reader's perspective, Usenet News is "subscribed to". Each user issues "news reader" commands to read and submit (or "post") articles to the various newsgroups. Most newsgroups are unmoderated, meaning that contributors post anything they want without any review. In general, the only form of judgment on content is by peer pressure from other group participants. A key observation is that there may not be a point where any systematic review of material can occur before it is available for world-wide reading. Postings can arrive from any point in the world which has computer access to Usenet. While moderated newsgroups are said to be "reviewed by the moderator", how (or whether) that person reviews material is not subject to any further review. Most groups are unmoderated. The Usenet newsgroups generally come into campus over a high- speed data network called the Internet. The backbone of the academic communication facility is funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Note that the NSF does not directly provide the Usenet News service--it only provides one transport mechanism which is used to relay the newsgroups from one area to another. Connected to the NSF backbone are regional high-speed networks formed for the purpose of providing access to the NSF backbone. Iowa State belongs to and uses the facilities of MIDnet, a seven-state regional network. A significant share of the support structure for distributing Usenet News is derived from public funding. Most (although not all) of the long-haul newsgroup transport occurs over NSF's data communications network and the regional networks supported in part by NSF and other public funding. Many of the news systems that receive and re-distribute news articles are owned by or operated for the U.S. government (in the case of military or research systems) or by state and local governments (in the case of university systems). Usenet News could not function at the current level without the existing public-funded infrastructure. Challenges Which Accompany This Technology The use of Usenet to discuss a wide variety of issues has grown over the years. While the "purely technical" newsgroups still exist, Usenet also includes general discussion on almost anything, including such topics as aspects of sexual lifestyles, illegal drugs, and racist humor. The collective group of Usenet "news administrators" early on decided to address this area by creating an "alt" group division for "alternate" selections. This group can be handled as each site chooses. Currently, the "alt" groups contain such topics as: alt.sex Postings of a prurient nature alt.sex.bondage Postings about dominance/submission alt.sex.pictures Graphics images of a prurient nature alt.drugs Recreational pharmaceuticals and also these topics: alt.fishing Fishing as a hobby and sport alt.recovery 12-step recovery groups (such as Alcoholics Anonymous) alt.sources Alternative source code alt.native Issues for and about native Americans Some university sites in other locations have already come under internal and external criticism for the use of state and federal funds to store and distribute items which are alleged either to be illegal or objectionable. Usenet newsgroups present a new form of "openness", both in access and in collection. University computer access may extend further into the public in the immediate future with ever-expanding network access. Assumptions that access is limited to adults (student, staff, or faculty) may no longer be valid. This new medium provides users the ability to voluntarily read and submit anything they want in a relatively uncensored and anonymous atmosphere. What is posted anywhere on the world-wide network can result in Iowa State "acquiring" that posting. Development of the Usenet News Policy Many aspects of Usenet News were considered in developing a policy. Several of them are discussed here to lend insight into the policy itself. Some of the material provided through Usenet has been objectionable to some members of the university community. These objections have ranged from an objection to having newsgroups considered "frivolous" available on a researcher's workstation to objections to the display of material in violation of the university's sexual harassment policy. The volume of material that arrives at campus every day precludes individual review of articles or even of selected newsgroups. The campus commitment to open access and intellectual freedom makes the review of material unlikely even if it were logistically feasible. With the academic freedom of the campus environment goes individual intellectual responsibility. Hallmarks of that responsibility are to obtain and use material in manners which respect others in the campus community; the goals of intellectual inquiry; and state and federal law, including laws governing child pornography and sexual harassment statutes governing hostile environments. Certain aspects of public law may apply to the dissemination of material to persons under the age of 18. Currently, textual material is easily viewed. Graphic material requires additional processing to be viewable although, once processed, it can be easily displayed on common workstations and microcomputers. The future undoubtedly holds advances in the user interface so that graphical material will be as easily viewed as text. Additionally, multi-media advances will make moving video replete with sound as easily seen and heard as text is viewed today. Individual article review is precluded by the volume of material received. Without the allocation of extensive personnel time, newsgroups can only be assessed by their name, the accompanying description, or a sample of their contents. Due to the extremely distributed nature of the posting process, any newsgroup may contain an occasional posting (particularly with respect to potentially offensive language) which could be considered to be objectionable by some. Certain technical issues also pertain. The news server software can distinguish recipients of newsgroups based only on the Internet address of the receiving computer (timesharing system, workstation, or microcomputer). Of the timesharing systems operated by the Computation Center which offer general access, only the software on the HDS system (WYLBUR) is readily modifiable to allow individual choice of access. Usenet News Policy The Computation Center maintains a news server offering Usenet newsgroups for the Iowa State University community. This offering of service must comply with federal, state, and local laws; policies of the Iowa Board of Regents and Iowa State University; and be within the guidelines of any agreements between the university and local, regional, national, or international computer networks. The Usenet News administrator is responsible for the day-to-day management of the service provided to the Iowa State University campus. Any material, particularly locally-posted material, which could be harmful to a specific individual may be removed by the Usenet News administrator. Newsgroups which have large resource requirements that adversely affect general use of Usenet News may be restricted in some form by the Usenet News administrator. Any newsgroup may contain material which is unfamiliar, unorthodox, or unpopular to some. Occasionally, even ordinary newsgroups may contain material which a reader finds objectionable. Members of the university community have the right to request a review of particular material by contacting the Usenet News administrator in writing. An alternative to requesting a review is to realize that the presentation of such material in Usenet News does not imply any endorsement by those providing the news service or by those subscribing to it. This suggested alternative does not apply to the public display of offensive materials, only to the presence of material within Usenet. Three variations of Usenet newsgroups are offered. These are called the Focused News List, the Standard News List, and the Full News List. The purpose of the Focused News List is to provide an alternative to those who want their computer to only access newsgroups which appear to be focused on academic information directly rather than hobby or recreational areas. The Focused News List contains all newsgroups except the alternative and recreational hierarchies (i.e., "alt" and "rec"). Other hierarchies may also be excluded in the future if their primary focus appears to be other than academic information. The purpose of the Standard News List is to provide access to the newsgroups which are less likely to evoke questions regarding access, use, or distribution of the material. Hence, the Standard News List offering will explicitly exclude some newsgroups. The Standard News List offering will be the default provided to campus computers. The excluded groups are those which appear to offer potential conflicts with law (particularly with child protection and pornography law) or with campus policies such as the sexual harassment policy. A list of the excluded newsgroups will be posted monthly to the newsgroup isu.newsgroups with the subject heading Monthly Posting--ISU Usenet Access Policy-Standard List. If other newsgroups are created which appear to offer these same potential conflicts, they will be excluded also. The purpose of the Full News List is to offer full access to all newsgroups to those in the Iowa State community who request it and acknowledge their responsibility in accessing, using, and distributing material from it. Some material in the Full News List may not be appropriate for general distribution. It is the responsibility of those receiving the material to comply with appropriate law and policy. All campus computers served by the Computation Center news server will receive the Standard News List as the default. Those persons in charge of computers (timesharing systems, workstations, or microcomputers) may request either the Focused List or the Full List by filling out the appropriate form obtained from the Computation Center administrative office, 291 Durham Center. The signer of the form for the Focused News List acknowledges that certain material may not be available to the specified computer. The signer of the form for the Full News List acknowledges responsibility for access, use, and distribution of all Usenet material obtained through the specified computer via either console or remote use. Once either Full or Focused access has been requested, the requestor may revert to the Standard offering by filling out a form. All publicly-accessible computers in the Computation Center, with the exception of the HDS WYLBUR timesharing system, will offer the Standard News List only. University users of WYLBUR may request access to the Full or Focused News Lists by filling out the appropriate form obtained from 291 Durham Center. The form acknowledges individual responsibility of the user-id owner for access, use, and distribution of Usenet material. Some material in the full news feed may not be appropriate for general distribution. It is the responsibility of those receiving the material to comply with appropriate law and policy.