Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!umich!umeecs!zip!bagchi From: bagchi@eecs.umich.edu (Ranjan Bagchi) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Anonymous postings Message-ID: Date: 15 Jan 91 23:27:11 GMT References: <1991Jan7.190403.9267@alphalpha.com> <1991Jan09.175609.6303@looking.on.ca> <40305@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <10129@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <11705@goofy.Apple.COM> Sender: news@zip.eecs.umich.edu Organization: University of Michigan Lines: 55 In-Reply-To: wrs@apple.com's message of 13 Jan 91 00:28:58 GMT In article <11705@goofy.Apple.COM> wrs@apple.com (Walter Smith) writes: >In article <10129@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> jbuck@galileo.berkeley.edu (Joe >Buck) writes: >> ...getting the attention of Congress to the >> legal status of Usenet is likely to backfire... >> >> There was only one semi-serious threat of a suit that I recall -- >> the idea was that harrassment of women on the net was so severe that >> companies that carry the net in the US could be sued under the >> equal employment opportunity/affirmative action rules, for providing >> conditions that discriminate against women. > >Interesting anecdote: The entire alt.sex hierarchy was removed from >internal machines here at Apple because of fear of lawsuits under >California's sexual harassment law. Several of the messages in the >ensuing uproar said that attempts to change this policy by calling Usenet >to the attention of the Apple legal department were likely to backfire. >(See, even *we're* scared of our legal department! :-) Getting the >"Establishment" to understand the potential of computer networks will have >to be a gentle, gradual process to avoid reflexive panic reactions. > >- Walt Perhaps off the subject, but the removal of alt.sex* is likely to be extremely counter-productive, if the goal of such removal is to keep potentially "harassing" material off the net. Why were groupd like alt.sex created in teh first place? To give the perverts (myself included) a place to hang out? Only indirectly. According to the story I've heard, groups like alt.sex, and alt.drugs, and rec.pyrotechnics are there so people interested in some of the more perverse aspects of sci.bio or sci.chem, etc. will have a place to talk about it, and leave those who deal with biology or chemistry for a living with a newsgroup with a relatively high signal to noise ratio. All the removal of such groups is going to do is undo the benefits of their creation. And your "sensitive" types who read rec.pets are going to have to worry about those who miss alt.sex.bestiality. >-- >Walter Smith wrs@apple.com, apple!wrs >Apple Computer, Inc. (408) 974-5892 >My corporation disavows any knowledge of my activities on the network. -rj -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ranjan Bagchi - At Large. Well Kinda. | what kind of person bagchi@[eecs | would want to count syllables caen, | just to write haiku? math.lsa].umich.edu | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------