Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!haven!udel!berryh
From: berryh@udel.edu (John Berryhill)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: What constitutes abuse of the net?
Message-ID: <5915@nigel.udel.EDU>
Date: 12 Dec 89 17:16:08 GMT
References: <37942@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Sender: usenet@udel.EDU
Reply-To: berryh@udel.edu (John Berryhill)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 29

In article <37942@ames.arc.nasa.gov> hettinger@krypton.arc.nasa.gov writes:
>
>the posting originated.  I basically just lodged a protest with
>the sysad, but also asked that consideration be made of terminating
>this individual's access to the net.
>
>	Am I right or wrong?  What constitutes abuse of the net?
>I have no wish to infringe an individual's rights but on the 
>other hand I feel compelled to take action, particularly when
>dealing with sexual abuse of children.

Oh sure.  Joe.User@site.com is going to read a stupid joke on wreck.humus
and then go out and rape kiddies.  Get real.

Humor is often a device by which people deal with hidden fears and
anxieties that would otherwise be difficult to talk about in public.
Think of all the jokes that involve death in some way (St. Peter's gate,
etc.).  Somebody who just had a relative die might get upset by reading
a joke about the subject.

It seems to me that there are a contingent of folks on the net who
read rec.humor with the sole purpose of launching a crusade against
various forms of ethnic, religious, sexual, and political humor.  If
you want to be the official net.censor, feel free, but someday someone
isn't going to like something that you have to say either.

--
							      John Berryhill
					   143 King William, Newark DE 19711