University of Georgia

Usenet Newsgroup Redistribution Policy

Last revised April 28, 1999

Usenet newsgroups are online discussion forums whose contents are automatically copied to numerous computers -- called news servers -- for redistribution, rather than distributed from one designated site as web pages and mailing lists are.

The University of Georgia maintains one or more news servers to redistribute newsgroup contents and thereby reduce the total communication costs associated with newsgroup access, as well as distributing local (uga.*) newsgroups that are not available elsewhere.

Not all newsgroups are redistributed from this server. In particular, the University's news server does not handle newsgroups intended only for local distribution elsewhere; nor certain newsgroups that, by accident, have not reached Georgia; nor certain newsgroups deliberately deleted pursuant to the policies stated below.

Crucially, the University's news server is not the only means of newsgroup access for members of the University community. Most newsgroups, including local newsgroups from other localities, can be accessed through commercial web sites such as www.dejanews.com or by connecting one's news reader to a server elsewhere.

Also, crucially, there is no official complete list of newsgroups. For purely accidental reasons, some newsgroups will inevitably be missing from some servers. When the need for a missing newsgroup is pointed out, the University will, in general, add it to the available set if it is practical to do so.

The University reserves the right to refrain from redistributing newsgroups for the following three reasons:

• Obscenity. The University recognizes that personal standards of taste differ widely, but obscenity is defined by laws and court decisions, not just personal taste. Under the law, it is illegal to publish or redistribute certain kinds of sexually explicit material. Accordingly, the University will not put itself in jeopardy by redistributing newsgroups that, to the best of its knowledge, regularly contain material that violates applicable obscenity laws. In Georgia, O.C.G.A 16-12-80 provides that the knowing distribution of obscene materials is a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. Laws differ in other states. Unlike other forms of speech, obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, and courts have consistently upheld governments' right to regulate it.

  The University must also be sensitive to the possibility that the availability of sexually explicit discussion topics could be claimed to create a hostile or offensive work environment and hence potentially violate the established University policy prohibiting sexual harassment.

• Other illegal content. It is also illegal to distribute software or other copyrighted material in violation of copyright laws, and there are some newsgroups (generally distinguished by the term "warez") in which copyright violations regularly occur. The University will not put itself in jeopardy by knowingly redistributing such newsgroups.

• Excessive cost. Some newsgroups require quantities of disk space and communication bandwidth out of proportion to their value to the University. The University's news server is a limited resource provided to the University community to further the educational, research, and outreach mission of the institution. As such, the University also reserves the right to make reasonable decisions regarding allocation of this resource. For this reason, the University may decline to redistribute any newsgroup whose redistribution would impose costs not justified by the newsgroup's value to the University. These decisions will be made with reference to the educational, research, and outreach mission of the institution and will be made in a fair and impartial manner.

The University will not delete individual incoming messages from newsgroups while continuing to redistribute the newsgroup as a whole. Such a tactic would be impractical because of the amount of data involved, and more importantly, it would mislead people as to whether they are actually seeing the contents of the newsgroup. Note however that the University cannot prevent deletions of individual messages that may occur at other sites from which the University receives data.

All decisions to refrain from redistributing newsgroups are subject to review by the Campus Information Technology Forum. The following procedures are hereby established:

• Faculty requests for access to newsgroups that the University does not redistribute are to be directed to the Chair of the Campus Information Technology Forum who will initiate a review which may lead to a recommendation of action by the members of the forum to the Campus Information Technology Policy Board. The request provided must identify the academic purposes for which access is requested and acceptance by the requester of the responsibility to insure that access will comply with applicable state and federal laws. In the instance the Information Technology Policy Board does not approve an access request, the requester may petition for reconsideration to The Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

• Members of the University community who suspect that newsgroups currently being redistributed by the university are legally obscene, or otherwise illegal to distribute, may request their deletion through petition to the Campus Information Technology Forum. The petition is to be directed to the Chair of this group and must identify the newsgroup or newsgroups claimed to be obscene or otherwise illegal and provide specific examples of objectionable content. The Information Technology Forum with the counsel of the University Legal Affairs Office as appropriate will recommend to the Information Technology Policy Board whether the cited newsgroups should be retained or deleted. Petitions for deletion that are denied by the Information Technology Policy Board may be appealed to the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

• The University's Computer Security Incident Handling Team is authorized to delete newsgroups temporarily from University supported news servers immediately upon determination of possible conflict with University newsgroup policy. Such deletion will be based upon the collective judgment of the Computer Security Incident Handling Team that a newsgroup appears to violate state or federal laws prohibiting its dissemination or is, for reasons of bandwidth or disk space, impractical to redistribute.

  When such a deletion occurs, the chair of the Incident Handling Team will report the action taken and the basis for it at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Campus Information Technology Forum. Continued deletion of such newsgroup from University news server resources will require approval of this action by a majority vote of the Forum membership and endorsement by the Campus Information Technology Policy Board.

This policy was developed in consultation with the established campus information technology advisory and executive governance organizations and with the University's Legal Affairs Office. It is designed to be consistent with the institutional ethical use statement for University computing and networking facilities whereby these resources are to be used only for University purposes. In this context, University purposes include the educational programs of the University, as well as its research, administrative, and outreach activities. This policy has been approved by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.