FC: Univ of Mass says professor's racy Web site was "harrassment?"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Seems to me it only is "harassment" if you're forced to look at it, and 
maybe not then. Still, there's a long history of bogus "harassment" charges 
being used to censor political speech:
  http://joc.mit.edu/charges.html#7

Harvey Silverglate and Alan Kors have covered this in their excellent book 
The Shadow University:
  http://www.shadowuniv.com/

-Declan

*********

> From: "Volokh, Eugene" <VOLOKH () mail law ucla edu>
> To: "Declan McCullagh (E-mail)" <declan () well com (Declan McCullagh)>
> Subject: Another interesting cyber-academic freedom issue
> Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 12:37:02 -0700
>
>         Have you been following this story?
>
>
> <http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500189353-500254677-501299019-0,00.html>http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/0,1038,500189353-500254677-501299019-0,00.html 
>
>
> "University of Massachusetts removes professor's racy Web site," from the AP
>
>
> A professor's sexually explicit Web site, which includes photos of topless 
> women straddling his lap, has been removed from the University of 
> Massachusetts computer server.
>
> "He was asked to take it down and he did," university spokeswoman Kay 
> Scanlan said Wednesday. She said the administration felt the Web site 
> violated the university's "acceptable use" policy for its computer system.
>
> Richard Burt, 46, a tenured English professor known for his scholarship on 
> censorship and sexuality, did not return a message seeking comment. His 
> wife, Betsy, who was featured in some of the revealing photos, declined 
> comment and said her husband would not discuss the issue either.
>
> However, Scanlan said Burt took issue with the administration's view that 
> the Web site, with an opening photo of the professor fondling the breasts 
> of a blonde and links to porn sites, contained material that should be 
> labeled as "objectionable" under the university's policy.
>
> "He disagrees with the policy and said that he will be taking it up with 
> the administration," Scanlan said.
>
>
>
>         I'm not sure about this, but I suspect that the policy at issue 
> is up at 
> <http://www.oit.umass.edu/ca/docs/use_policy.html>http://www.oit.umass.edu/ca/docs/use_policy.html 
> ; it's interesting how little it says about what's "objectionable" and 
> what's not.  (It may also be interesting that the "objectionable" speech 
> paragraph is labeled "Harassment.")
>
>         FYI, I have on my own site links to material that some call 
> pornographic, see the paragraph following 
> <http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/volokh/harass/breadth.htm#T81>http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/volokh/harass/breadth.htm#T81


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