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From: gja@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Inspector Gadget)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.misc
Subject: Re: USENET site admin responsibilities
Summary: What ever happened to responsibilities ?
Message-ID: <2053@munnari.oz.au>
Date: 7 Sep 89 23:47:03 GMT
References: <13316@nsc.nsc.com> <3988@buengc.BU.EDU> <1989Sep3.043558.9447@xenitec.uucp> <4030@buengc.BU.EDU> <89250.001226HERSCHEL@AUVM>
Sender: news@cs.mu.oz.au
Reply-To: gja@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Inspector Gadget)
Organization: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Melbourne,
		Australia
Lines: 42

In article <89250.001226HERSCHEL@AUVM> HERSCHEL@AUVM.BITNET (Herschel Browne) writes:
	[...]
>
>What really pisses me off in this discussion is the introduction of
>"property rights" considerations....So and so may have a right to say
>anything he likes, but the university of such and such doesn't have
>a duty to subsidize it; now THAT is crap. A university really DOES
>have a duty to make possible unfettered communication. Perhaps a

	[...]

>What they're really paying their homage to is power, not freedom.
>If the university of such-and-such has the POWER to deprive
>someone of the opportunity to communicate freely, then they have
>the (moral) right to do so. Enough to make a guy like me puke.
>
	Sitting all the way 'down under' listening to "I've got
rights that _you_ must pay for me to exercise" garbage makes me
wonder how you guys ever get _anywhere_ under you're own steam.
Perhaps I'm sadly deluded but I subscribe to the view that 'rights'
come after you accept 'responsibility'. At the very least a university
is responsible for the way use of its facilities affects the 'environment'
around it. In order to exercise this responsibility they must have and use
the power to limit 'irresponsible' use of their facilities. Period. I've
seen so many self-centered people demand rights without having to take
responsibility for their actions that it makes _me_ want to puke.

	Oneday, kiddo, you're going to have to learn the reality that
_you_ only have the right to say what you want so long as you only
use _your_ resources to do so. If "your resources" are actually loaned to 
you by some-one else then guess what ? They are always on loan under _some_
conditions. If you can't hack the notion of working in partnership with,
or being dependent on, anothers good/bad nature thats your problem.
Understand that the 'news' service exists as a goodwill or parasite service
at most Universities. You demand unfettered right to rock the boat? 
Will you have the guts to accept responsibility when the boat sinks? Hmm?

	I'm always intrigued by calls to 'moral rights', etc, in this
sort of situation. Anyone care to debate whether 'tis more important
to exercise moral right or accept moral responsibility ?

gja