[8278] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: * EDGAR and A-130
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Haynes)
Fri Nov 12 16:43:07 1993
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 15:37:29 -0600
From: shaynes@research.westlaw.com (Steve Haynes)
To: com-priv@psi.com, love@essential.org
Cc: shaynes@research.westlaw.com
On Fri, 12 Nov 1993 13:49:23 -0500 Jamie Love said:
> In a note posted earlier today I passed on my wife's regards
> to West Publshing's Stephen Haynes. Apparently this has
> raised a few eyebrows, so I should say that Steve has never
> meet me or my wife, but he did cause her some unpleasant
> problems this past September, after he contacted her
> employer. This was in connection with questions posted on
> the internet regarding JURIS.
>
> Here is hoping that in the future Mr. Haynes will find more
> direct ways of expressing his support for West's position on
> these matters.
Ah, Jamie, once again by dealing in half-truths and innuendoes
you are casting aspersions upon an honorable person -- in this
case, me. One of these days someone is going to sue you for
libel, so watch it.
I apologize in advance for inflicting this long message on
everyone, but circumstances require a full accounting of the
episode. The facts of the situation (and remember, kind
gentlefolk, Jamie started this) are these:
1) Early in our tracking of Jamie Love and the Taxpayer Assets
Project we discerned that Jamie was using an "edu" address for
many of his postings (LOVE%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@pucc.princeton.edu).
It seemed to us that, if Jamie was going to pursue his activist
affairs, he should do so without the support -- tacit or
otherwise -- of educational institutions. So I inquired into the
nature of his relationship with Princeton:
> Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 11:28:51 -0500
> One individual having his address at your host is Mr. Jamie
> Love, (LOVE%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@pucc.princeton.edu). Please
> inform me if Mr. Love pays for his access to your host.
> Thank you for your assistance.
2) The Princeton postmaster replied that they served as a
gateway from vm.temple.edu, so I had best address my inquiry
there. I did, with same text as above, and received following
reply from Temple's postmaster:
> Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 19:59:09 EDT
> From: Stan Horwitz <OASIS@VM.TEMPLE.EDU>
>
> Temple University does not charge faculty members or other
> employees for the use of Temple's computers. We do, however,
> ask that no one use Temple's computers for anything that's
> profit oriented if the profit does not go to support
> Temple's educational/research mission. Why are do you ask?
3) "Well," says I, "perhaps Jamie is a Temple employee and we
just don't know it. Let's inquire a bit further." My reply:
> Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1993 13:12:09 -0500
> To: OASIS@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
>
> I am asking because Mr. Love uses this return address on
> email that is widely broadcast wherein Mr. Love,
> representing the "Taxpayer Assets Project," a "public-
> interest group" funded by the Ralph Nader organization,
> takes positions critical of and often misrepresenting the
> information and/or publishing industries. We are concerned
> that Mr. Love is getting a "free ride" for his efforts.
>
> One follow-up question. Do I imply correctly from your
> response that Mr. Love is a Temple University employee? If
> so, what is his title, please?
4) Mr. Horwitz replied:
> Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 23:32:31 EDT
> From: Stan Horwitz <OASIS@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
>
> I am not sure what the title is of the person uses the
> E-mail address of love@templevm. He is probably a
> professor here though. If you have access to finger, try
> fingering him at love@vm.temple.edu.
>
> Make no mistake, we who run Temple's computer systems never
> attempt to censor anything our users say on public
> discussion groups. If you do not like something this
> person say's, feel free to bring it to that person's
> attention. This person does not represent the official
> views of Temple University. If you can show me that
> love@templevm is abusing some computer resource or he is
> abusing the rights of others, I will certainly investigate
> the matter. If he is doing nothing other than expressing
> views you dislike, I can do nothing about that nor would
> I want to do anything about it.
5) Not wishing to suggest that Temple ought to censor anyone,
not even Jamie, I replied:
> Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 14:23:57 -0500
> To: OASIS@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
>
> Mr. Horwitz:
>
> Thank you for your reply and the appropriate reminder.
>
> In fact, we would not think of asking the Mr. Love be
> censored. As publishers, we are too much aware of the
> dangers of _that_ particular road. In addition, we already
> have a healthy dialog with Mr. Love on a variety of issues
> he has raised. However, we are also concerned that Mr. Love
> not be, as you put it, "abusing some computer resource or
> ... the rights of others" in the process of expressing his
> views. To the best of our present knowledge he has no
> association with Temple University. We are checking that.
> Moreover, the finger command yielded the following:
>
> $ finger love@vm.temple.edu
> [vm.temple.edu]
>
> Userid: V5153U Real name: SUSAN LOVE Type:
> undergrad student
> Department: COMPUTER INFO. SCIENCE
> The status of this userid is: not logged on
>
> Userid: LOVE Real name: MANON RESS Type:
> faculty member
> Department: CAS-FRENCH & ITALIAN
> The status of this userid is: not logged on
>
> Neither of which, clearly, is the individual concerned. We
> are investigating further.
>
> Thank you again for your reply and cooperation. I shall not
> bother you further unless we turn up some information we
> feel you should know.
6) Mr. Horwitz replied:
> Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 11:31:55 EDT
> From: Stan Horwitz <OASIS@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
>
> I spoke with Dr. Ress who signed out the LOVE@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
> account. The account is being used only by authorized Temple
> people as far as I can tell.
7) Neither I nor anyone else at West knowingly had any contact
with Jamie's wife's employer. Until this present exchange of
messages, I had not the slightest idea that he and the
individual, Manon Ress, were related. The fact that Jamie
apparently was surreptitiously using his wife's Internet account
(under his own name, apparently, not hers) at Temple never became
known to us except as may be inferred by the preceding. The fact
that Temple Internet administrators, as Jamie puts it, "cause[d]
her some unpleasant problems this past September," appears to me
to have been brought on entirely by his abusing her privileges at
the University.
But then Jamie has already shown that he is willing freely to
spend other people's money.
Now, Jamie, if you wish to pursue the _merits_ of this matter any
further, I'd be pleased to continue the conversation.
* Stephen L. Haynes Internet: shaynes@research.westlaw.com
* Manager, WESTLAW Research MCI Mail: 221-3969
* & Development Compuserve: 76236,3547
* West Publishing Company Phone: 612/687-5770
* 610 Opperman Drive Fax: 612/687-7907
* Eagan, MN 55123
