Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!mips!atha!aunro!alberta!herald.usask.ca!lowey
From: lowey@herald.usask.ca (Kevin Lowey)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Canceling someone else's article
Message-ID: <1991Jun1.163446.4102@herald.usask.ca>
Date: 1 Jun 91 16:34:46 GMT
References: <48330@bcsaic.UUCP>
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Lines: 32

From article <48330@bcsaic.UUCP>, by snicoud@Boeing.com (Stephen L Nicoud):
> In article <1991May29.222406.26060@herald.usask.ca> lowey@herald.usask.ca (Kevin Lowey) writes:
>>If anyone has a RIGHT here, it is the right of the owner of a computer to
>>control how his computer is used.  Its exactly the same as the bus driver who
>>has the right to kick anyone off the bus if they are causing a problem.  
>>Claiming that the USERS have rights to get electronic mail, no matter how
>>badly they act, is similar to saying that bus riders have the right to steal
>>the bus, and use it to rob a bank.  If someone is trying to use MY equipment
>>in a way *I* consider is improper, then *I* have every right to kick those
>>people off *MY* computer.
> 
> And how about the bus driver/owner who makes black people sit in the
> back of the bus.  Clearly it is not *always* up to the owner's notion
> of what is "improper".  You cannot restrict the activities based upon
> sex, race, religion, creed, etc...


Notice that I said the owner of the system has the right to set any rules
he wants on that system AS LONG AS IT'S LEGAL.

The situation of racial discrimination is in many places ILLEGAL, so this
whole sidebar about the hypothetical racist sysop doesn't really apply to my
comments.

I guess we've gone full circle here.  The question now is whether or not it 
is legal for the sysop to read mail marked as "private".  I get around that on
my BBS by explicitly stating to the users of my system that there is no such
thing as private mail, and the sysop can and will read any message he wants to
on the system.  As long as people know the messages are not private, then they
cannot claim that I am invading their privacy.

- Kevin Lowey