[10076] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Andrews Univ. & C. Thomas
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Glenn S. Tenney)
Sun Feb 6 05:44:09 1994
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 02:44:10 -0800
To: "Joseph W. Stroup" <nettech@crl.com>, com-priv@psi.com
From: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
At 12:45 AM 2/6/94 -0800, Joseph W. Stroup wrote:
>I do not agree with the way Clarence Thomas sent his message out over
>the net but, I support his right to do so. In the Andrews Univ. news
>release even the Univ. pointed out that Mr. Thomas did not violate
>the law.
There are many things that staff and students (even employees of companies)
can do that are in violation of "policy" or "stanards of acceptable
behavior" that are NOT in violation of any law. I belive that this was the
case here. Thomas' posting was clearly something that he should not have
done (legal or not). And it is for that that he is being reprimanded.
The release was merely noting that although there are no laws covering
this, there are standards of behavior...
Lawsuits? I don't think so... Unless there was no clause anywhere in
any university policy covering anything remotely close to what happened.
For example, some policies note that "misappropriation of services is a
no-no", so that would fit (by sending it to thousands of unwanted places,
untold zillions of cycles of computer power were misappropriated...) --
again, relative to a policy of behavior and not to "the law".
---
Glenn Tenney
tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
(415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
