[news.admin] Policy on Access to Information

davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) (11/22/89)

wcn@max.u.washington.edu (W C Newell Jr) writes:
| I agree completely with the "nobody knows" part.  The point I'm trying to make
| is that I've heard valid legal arguments on both sides.  I am getting very
| frustrated with the recurrent postings by some admins which proclaim their
| sites to be immune from liability, when there is another side to it and the
| central issues have not been tested in court.

  To change the subject slightly, there is an organization within most
universities (and some larger companies) which has a rich history and
considerable experience with questions of censorship, liability and
responsibility.

  Its called a library.

  If your organization has a library, speak to them. Ours has a large
poster on the wall making our policy known to everyone, provided by the
Canadian Library Association, stating the policy that we are signatories
to.

  This might cast a little light onto an unnecessarily heated discussion.
[the discussion of distribution contains light as well as heat, but perhaps
less than it could (:-))]

--dave
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | davecb@yunexus, ...!yunexus!davecb or
72 Abitibi Ave.,      | {toronto area...}lethe!dave 
Willowdale, Ontario,  | Joyce C-B:
CANADA. 416-223-8968  |    He's so smart he's dumb.