Electronic Information Study Group
Final Report

Electronic Information Study Group

Freedom of expression and an open environment to pursue scholarly inquiry and to share information are encouraged, supported and protected at TAMU. Access to the networked computer information in general and to the Internet in particular supports the academic community by providing a link to electronic information in a variety of formats (for example, text and graphics) and covering all academic disciplines. This access has become critical to meeting the educational, research, and service needs of the University. The TAMU community has come to rely on the Internet for communication of information, and use of this resource is growing exponentially.

As with any resource, it is possible to misuse and abuse access to the Internet. However, it is the unanimous view of the Study Group that the benefits involved in the use of these Internet resources far outweighs any actual or potential misuse. It would be not only technologically impractical but also inconsistent with freedom of expression for TAMU to limit access to some newsgroups on the Internet, but not to others. The Study Group believes that the university community is best served by further development of guidelines regarding rights and responsibilities in the use of this technology.

The Study Group makes the following recommendations for policy and procedures at Texas A&M University. These recommendations are organized according to policy areas:

Freedom of Expression: Censorship is not compatible with the goals of Texas A&M University. While some computers may be dedicated to specific research or teaching missions that would limit their use, freedom of expression must, in general, be protected. While we reject censorship, there are several forms of expression that are not protected: obscene material, child pornography, sexual harassment, or other violations of the law.

Privacy: The general right of privacy should be extended to the extent possible to the electronic environment. Privacy is mitigated by the open records law, administrative review, computer system administration, and audits. Contents of electronic files should be examined or disclosed only when authorized by the owner, approved by an appropriate institution official, or required by law.

Intellectual Property: All members of the TAMU community should be aware of how intellectual property laws apply to the electronic environment and should respect the property of others.

Authorized Use: Computing resources are provided by the university to accomplish tasks related to the University's mission. Computing resources may not be used for commercial activities unless specifically authorized. Incidental personal use is governed by the TAMUS Ethics Policy.

Records Management: Retention or deletion of individual data files or e-mail should be the responsibility of the individual owner of the files. It is not the administrator's responsibility to archive or otherwise retain data under the retention schedule, except for data that relates to system operation.

Responsible Computer Usage: A Code of Ethics should be written for computer users.

Criminal and Illegal Acts: The computing resources of the university, which includes the hardware, software and network environment, must not be used for illegal activities. Any such use of these resources will be dealt with by the appropriate university authorities or other legal and law enforcement agencies. Criminal and illegal use may involve obscenity, child pornography, sexual harassment, theft, and unauthorized access.

Continuing Review and Education: An Electronic Information Committee should be formed as a standing committee to review all technological, legal, and policy developments in the area of electronic information and make recommendations to the Executive Vice President and Provost concerning University policies and procedures. An education program for faculty, students, staff and administrators is recommended to ensure proper utilization of electronic information resources.

Electronic Information Study Group

The Study Group's original charge identified two issues of importance: freedom of expression within the community of scholars and utilization of public resources. The charge recognized the difficulty of dealing with issues given the ubiquitous nature of network connections. The Study Group was asked to recommend specific policy to the Executive Vice President and Provost with a deadline of January 31, 1995.

The formation of this Study Group followed a brainstorming meeting which took place at the request of the Associate Provost for Computing and Information Services and included employees of Computing and Information Services, the Evans Library and the Provost's Office. Material collected in conjunction with this meeting was provided to the Study Group.

The Study Group began to meet in December of 1994 and set to the task of educating ourselves on the topic. The Group undertook a literature search and gathered recent information from the professional literature. Policy statements from professional organizations were reviewed. Computer and Information Services staff assisted the Group in understanding the technical details of Internet access and current procedures within that unit. Actions of other universities were monitored throughout the process.

After this initial assessment, the Study Group requested clarification of its charge from the Provost in January, 1995. The Study Group recommended that the charge be expanded beyond "newsgroup," to include other forms of communication on the Internet such as electronic mail, electronic databases, full text and images, and home pages. Accordingly, we requested that the name of the group be changed to "Electronic Information Study Group." The Provost accepted these clarifications of the charge and extended the time frame for the Group's work.

On February 17, 1995, the Study Group submitted to the administration an Interim Statement on Access to Internet Resources. This statement clearly defined the benefit of access to the Internet for the university by stating that "it would be not only technologically impractical but also inconsistent with freedom of expression for TAMU to limit access to some newsgroups on the Internet, but not to others." In that statement the Group suggested that the university community would be best served by further development of guidelines regarding the rights and responsibilities in the use of electronic information. The Study Group reaffirmed the need for the University to ensure legality of use of electronic information on university equipment. The Interim Statement is included in Appendix I of this report.

Background

Electronic mail is personal. The sender knows and specifies the recipients of individual messages. The recipient probably can not determine the type or content of the message without actually reading it. The US mail is a reasonable analogy.

News articles are intended to be read by a heterogeneous, mostly anonymous, audience. Using News is much like perusing (and posting messages to) hundreds of different bulletin boards, where each bulletin board has an announced 'purpose'. Each News group has a charter, or purpose, to guide the content of article posted. The sender generally does not know each individual in the audience, intends to have little or no control over distribution and chooses the News group(s) to which articles are posted. Reading News articles is a completely voluntary, individual act. The reader may not know the content of individual articles but is guided by the charter. [Usually, the group name is descriptive enough.] News articles are generally transitory. An extended party is probably a better analogy than publishing or libraries.

Archives are (more or less) permanent collections of information made easily available for a usually anonymous audience. There is currently no organized indexing or access methodology, although that may change. Archive suppliers must find some place to 'advertise' their existence. Users (readers) must hunt places where information is available. Maintaining electronic archives is analogous to traditional print publishing.

Video and audio conferencing on data networks is a very rapidly emerging use of the networks. Video conferencing typically means the ability to conduct an interactive conference with a person at some other point on the network. The conference may be point to point or may include a number of sites in a single conference. We are not referring to dedicated video conferencing networks such at the Trans-Texas Videoconferencing Network (TTVN) but rather the use of the Internet for videoconferencing. The Study Group did not address this use of the technology. However it is likely that this is an area that will require some attention in the future.

Audio conferencing on data networks is similar to the video conferencing. It does not refer to the use of dedicated telephone networks and audio conferencing capabilities. It is an emerging technology and while not addressed by the Study Group it should continue to be monitored for issues that may require attention.

Electronic databases services are provided to the campus by the libraries and Computer and Information Services. They are usually governed by license agreement which spell our usage conditions and responsibilities. The Study Group found no issues to address in this area.

A Glossary of terms used in this report is attached for the reader's assistance.

Access to the Internet

The Internet consists of thousands of inter-connected computer networks that provide access between two computers located anywhere throughout the world. This level of access coupled with the rapid expansion of the Internet to new locations and the massive movement of data between computers on the Internet, makes the task of controlling access to information extremely difficult if not impossible.

The University could establish procedures and guidelines to control which Internet information is stored on University computer systems. But, experience has shown that persons who want access to information that is not available on University computer systems, will use the Internet connection to find and access the information. Thus, unless University computers are prevented from accessing the Internet, it is not possible to control which information is accessed on the Internet.

Benefits of Internet Access

While the Internet has been widely publicized by national news media, its content and benefits are unclear to most Americans and to many in our university community. The Internet is a vast network of computers linking most universities and many companies around the world. More than 7 million people, at 1.2 million attached hosts, in 117 countries are able to send and receive messages to more than 4000 newsgroups representing the diverse interests of their users. As private companies such as America OnLine, CompuServe, AppleLink, etc., provide Internet connections to their subscribers, the number of potential users is expected to be in the range of 20 million.

The Internet is widely viewed as the forerunner of a ubiquitous global web of digital communications. Like the telephone, the Internet uses an intricate web of computer networks and computers connecting literally billions of people. As with broadcasting, a single source can get a message across to millions. Information can be made available for access for a short or long time. The delay between transmission and reception of information can be short or long. In some cases, access to information can be restricted to "authorized users." In other cases, access is unrestricted. Over time the costs of accessing information via the Internet--electronic hardware, software, and "know how"--have decreased. For some, obtaining information via Internet is as easy as obtaining information via telephone, television or radio.

The Texas A&M University community is, for the most part, computer literate. Students, faculty and staff use Internet resources on a daily basis. In February 1995 there were over 15,000 computers linked to the Internet on the College Station campus. Access is made through computers in dorm rooms, offices, microcomputer labs and to homes and other locations off campus. Currently, an average of 620,000 Internet connections are made each day which projects to over 200 million accesses per year.

Members of the Texas A&M University community can and do access and exchange electronic information in the form of text, graphics, images, video, and sound. They do so for a variety of purposes: teaching, research, learning, service, outreach, technology transfer, and entertainment. Faculty, students and staff communicate with each other, with colleagues at other academic institutions, and with anyone--and potentially everyone--connected to the Internet. They consult bulletin boards and news groups for useful information. They post and respond to inquiries for help. They gain access to new computer programs, census information, images from the Hubble telescope, biological archives, digital libraries and the holdings of traditional libraries. They use the Internet to carry on the work of fulfilling the multiple missions of Texas A&M University.

For several years, computer literacy has been a baccalaureate degree requirement for TAMU students. In 1995, skill in using the Internet is a key element of computer literacy. University students of the "Nintendo generation" must know how to use the Internet as a fundamental tool for knowledge acquisition and communication if they are to be competitive at the highest level in their chosen careers. A major goal of any university is to promote the skills of life-time learning. In the twenty-first century, computer networks will be among the most important, if not the most important, sources of information exchange. Life-time learners will continue their educations through computer networks.

Analysis and Recommendations

Freedom of Expression

The University community is able to access via the campus computer network and the Internet a variety of information sources in textual form as well as multimedia formats such as graphics, images, audio, and video. Multimedia sources are often stored as files and are accessed using applications such as e-mail, file transfer protocol (ftp), a Usenet news reader, gopher, or a World Wide Web (WWW) browser. It is also becoming common to conduct broadcasts and multipoint video teleconferences on the Internet that employ real-time audio, a shared white board, and low frame-rate video. Like their non-networked counterparts, some of this information being delivered to the desktop could be considered offensive, sexually harassing, or pornographic to some members of our community.

Recommendation 1

The Study Group recommends the following policy statement in relation to freedom of expression.

Freedom of expression and an open environment to pursue scholarly inquiry and for sharing of information are encouraged, supported, and protected at Texas A&M University. Censorship is not compatible with the goals of Texas A&M University. While some computers may be dedicated to specific research or teaching missions that would limit their use, freedom of expression must, in general, be protected. The University should not limit access to any information due to its content, when it meets the standard of legality. While we reject censorship, there are several forms of expression that are not protected: obscene material, child pornography, sexual harassment, or other violations of law. Some of these forms of expression are discussed further in other sections of this report.

Privacy

The University may approve access to individual files or activity logs for open records requests, system administration, audits, and general administrative need. These issues are discussed further in Recommendation 2.

Users should be warned that there is no guarantee against the unethical actions of others. The technology and openness that makes an interconnected worldwide set of multiuser computer systems so valuable also makes the individual's data somewhat vulnerable. However, this vulnerability does not mean approval of actions which violate privacy. Files generated by individual users should be considered as private, whether or not they are accessible by other users. The ability to access a file does not imply consent to read or alter that file. Some individually owned files are by definition open access. Examples include Unix .plan files, Web files made available through a system-wide facility, and files made available on an anonymous ftp server. Access by other users is assumed for these types of files.

Recommendation 2

The Study Group recommends the following policy statement in relation to privacy issues.

The general right of privacy should be extended to the extent possible to the electronic environment. TAMU and all electronic users should treat electronically stored information in individual files as confidential and private. Contents should be examined or disclosed only when authorized by the owner, approved by an appropriate institution official, or required by law. Privacy is mitigated by the following circumstances.

1. TAMU is an agency of the State of Texas and therefore subject to the Texas Public Information Act. For TAMU employees, electronic information created in the performance of their duties may be public records, just as are paper records. Such records may be subject to review and/or release under the Texas Public Information Act. In these cases, disclosure of personal e-mail or files not related to the specific issue discussed in the Public Information request will be avoided to the extent allowed by law.

2. Administrative files of the University are generated as part of the process of managing the University. Files that employees create or maintain can be reviewed by supervisors within this administrative context. Generally, faculty research files and files relating to scholarly endeavor will not be subject to such a review.

3. There is an acknowledged trade-off between the right of privacy of a user and the need of system administrators to gather necessary information to ensure the continued functioning of these resources. In the normal course of system administration, system administrators may have to examine activities, files, electronic mail, and printer listings to gather sufficient information to diagnose and correct problems with system software or hardware. Sometimes system administrators may access files to determine if security violations have occurred or are occurring. In this case, the user should be notified as soon as practical. System administrators at all times have an obligation to maintain the privacy of a user's files, electronic mail, and activity logs.

4. Computer systems and stored data are subject, by authorized personnel, to review for audit purposes or when a violation of university policy or law is suspected.

Intellectual Property

Recommendation 3

The Study Group recommends the following aspects of intellectual property be communicated to the campus community.

All authors should be aware that TAMUS policy provides that TAMUS owns all intellectual property created by employees of TAMUS. However, in keeping with academic tradition, TAMUS does not claim ownership of scholarly work, the intended purpose of which is to disseminate the results of academic research or scholarly study. Authors should recognize that placing their work in the electronic public domain (without the explicit notice of copyright) may result in the wide spread distribution of their work and could jeopardize their rights to this work.

All users should be aware that placing a work on the network does not necessarily place that work in the public domain. Users should assume that works communicated through these forms are subject to copyright unless specifically stated to the contrary. Users should not assume that they have a right to forward or distribute these works and may incur civil liability for violation of copyright. Utilization of any electronically transmitted information should be within the "fair use" principle unless permission of the author is obtained. The same standards of intellectual and academic honesty and plagiarism apply to electronic information as to other forms of published work.

See also Criminal and Illegal Acts section dealing with intellectual property software issues.

Authorized Use

Recommendation 4

The Study Group recommends the following policy in relation to authorized use.

Computing resources are provided by the university to accomplish tasks related to the University's mission. Usage of computing resources for these purposes is "authorized". Computing resources are connected to the campus network for the performance of authorized tasks. Accessing or attempting to access resources to perform unauthorized tasks is not permitted and is "unauthorized usage".

The following issues are noted in determining authorized use.

1. Computing resources may not be used for illegal activities.

2. Computing resources may not be used for commercial activities unless specifically authorized.

3. The TAMUS Ethics Policy (February 27, 1995 Section 8.3) states, "(personal) Use of ... electronic mail ... is considered to be a misapplication of state equipment if it results in additional costs being incurred by TAMUS, including long distance charges, or damage to the equipment." Computing resources used for other than "authorized" purposes must be incidental and must not result in additional costs to the university (Memorandum by President Bowen, May 19, 1995). When attempting to determine what constitutes incidental use analogy can be made to use of telephones or library resources.

Records Management

A comprehensive list of these files is included in the Texas State Records Retention Schedule (State Schedule 25 October, 1994). In general, correspondence of an administrative nature, complaints, speeches and reports are covered. Files specific to computer systems covered include computer utilization records and activity monitoring records.

Recommendation 5

The Study Group recommends the following practice in relation to public records.

A system administrator is responsible only for the proper operation of a computer, and for backups as necessary to ensure data integrity of the files on the computer. Retention or deletion of individual data files or e-mail is the responsibility of the individual owner of the files. It is not the administrator's responsibility to archive or otherwise retain data under the retention schedule, except for data that relates to system operation. All TAMU employees have the obligation to consult TAMUS records retention policy in the management of records.

Responsible Computer Usage and Behavior

All users have responsibilities to utilize this technology while respecting the rights of others. In the policy statement on a Discrimination-Free Campus the University stated its commitment "to providing an educational and work climate that is conducive to the personal and professional development of each individual, and ... to protect the rights and privileges and to enhance the self-esteem of all its members." Computer users are reminded that this policy applies to many of the activities listed above. Users are reminded that they are responsible for their actions and the consequences of those which could result in University disciplinary action.

Recommendation 6

The Study Group recommend that a Codes of Ethics be written for computer users at Texas A&M University. Writing of this document should be one of the first tasks of the Electronic Information Committee (see Recommendation 13).

Illegal Acts and Violations of University Policy

Recommendation 7

The Study Group recommends the following policy statement in relation to illegal use of computing resources.

The computing resources of the university, which includes the hardware, software and network environment, shall not be used for illegal activities. Any such use of these resources will be referred to the appropriate university authorities or other legal and law enforcement agencies.

Appendix III suggests procedures for systems administrators. The following commentary outlines possible criminal and illegal uses of the electronic environment.. Obscene Materials

Obscene materials are not protected by the First Amendment. The U. S. Supreme Court has defined obscenity as works which, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest in sex, which portray sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and which, taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973).

The basic guideline to determine whether a work meets this definition is to ask:

• (a) whether the average person, applying contemporary standards, would find the work taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
• (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law;
• (c) whether the work taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Recommendation 8

The Study Group recommends the following policy in this area.

All users should be aware that posting, display or storage of obscene material to a World Wide Webb Homepage, Usenet Newsgroup, Gopher server, e-mail, or live video teleconference may subject one to possible criminal prosecution.

The Study Group recommends that the university create a procedure to ensure proper review and handling of complaints concerning possibly obscene material on computing resources.

II. Child Pornography.

An area where Internet access and availability of computing resources has potential for illegal activity is that of child pornography. Child Pornography deals with images of children under the age of 18. Text only is not considered to be child pornography. The law regarding child pornography, Federal statute (USC 18.110:2252), specifically states the use of computers to transmit child pornography, including knowingly uploading or downloading child pornography is a federal offense. Knowingly making child pornography available for downloading is likewise a federal offense.

Thus, any possession of child pornography is illegal and should be eliminated from university equipment and resources. A user who downloads such an image to their computer, state or personal, is in violation of the law.

Recommendation 9

Any display or storage of child pornography images on TAMU resources is specifically prohibited by law and such use of the resources will be referred to appropriate University authorities and law enforcement authorities. A specific instance of child pornography found on computing resources will be immediately removed. A newsgroup which includes images which fall within the legal guidelines of child pornography on a more than incidental basis will be removed from the TAMU news server and their receipt will be blocked.

III. Sexual Harassment.

All forms of sexual harassment are considered to be in violation of the TAMU harassment policies and may be a violation of criminal law. (TAMUS Board Policies, Section 34.01) Sexual harassment can take on many forms. For example, it is clear that e-mail could be used to convey sexually harassing material to another individual. Objectionable pictures can potentially contribute to a hostile environment. Thus, displaying an objectionable image where it can be seen by others in a computer classroom, a university computer facility, a departmental computer laboratory, or even a shared office is likely a violation of law. Sending or displaying images or text may be considered harassment by the recipient or viewer.

Similarly, a WWW Homepage or Gopher server that includes objectionable material should not be displayed without first warning readers of the type of information that they will find if they select the hypertext link. A user browsing the Web and selecting your homepage should not be subjected to potentially objectionable material without a warning.

Recommendation 10

The Study Group recommends that the sexual harassment policy of TAMU be revised to explicitly include forms of electronic harassment.

IV. Theft of Software or Services

In cases where software is copyrighted or otherwise protected, it is the responsibility of users not to copy nor distribute such software without authorization. This extends to the copying and distribution of software for which the person, a department or TAMU may have purchased or licensed copies where such copying and distribution is in violation of the purchase or license agreement. Furthermore, it is illegal to facilitate others access to copyrighted software.

Users of TAMU computing resources gain remote access to other computing resources, either on or off campus, and make use of that access for activity which is not specifically authorized. While the resources used may not belong to TAMU, the use of TAMU resources to gain access to these resources is an illegal act. In all such cases, TAMU will cooperate with university and law enforcement officials in the investigation and prosecution of such activity.

Recommendation 11

The Study Group recommends the following procedures in relation to theft of software and services.

Any use of software or services as described in this section is a violation of the law and TAMU Policy. Violators will be referred to law enforcement authorities.

It is the responsibility of TAMU Computer & Information Services to insure that all software on the generally accessible computing resources of TAMU is appropriately licensed. This includes the generally accessible microcomputers.

It is the responsibility of colleges, departments and individuals to insure that the software being used on the equipment in areas of their control is appropriately licensed.

V. Unauthorized Access and Security.

TAMU is required by the Information Resources Management Act of 1991, State of Texas, to create and update annually a TAMU Computer Security Policy. This document was last issued on January 20, 1995, after being signed by the President of TAMU. The TAMU Computer Security Policy deals with: attempts to circumvent access controls; control of passwords and logon Ids; ownership of data; and unauthorized access to mission critical data.

All attempts to circumvent access controls on TAMU computing resources are violations of the TAMU Security Policy and the TAMU Rules and Regulations dealing with authorized access to computing resources.

Recommendation 12

The Study Group recommends the following procedure to be employed with the TAMU Computer Security Policy.

All incidents of unauthorized access to TAMU computing resources or reported unauthorized access of remote resources using the TAMU resources be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities in a timely manner. TAMU will cooperate with such authorities in the investigation of these incidents. Any violation of the TAMU Computer Security Policy is a serious matter and will be referred to the appropriate University authorities.

Continuing Review and Education

Recommendation 13

The Study Group recommends that a permanent university committee be formed to address this issue on a consistent basis. It is recommended that the Electronic Information Committee have the following purpose: to review all technological, legal, and policy developments in the area of electronic information and make recommendations to the Executive Vice President and Provost concerning University policies and procedures.

Recommendation 14

The Study Group believes that an education program for faculty, students, staff and administrators is important to ensure proper utilization of electronic information resources. This program should be developed and delivered to the entire campus community.

Conclusion

Appendix I

As with any resource, it is possible to misuse and abuse access to the Internet. However, it is the unanimous view of the Study Group that the good involved in the use of these Internet resources far outweighs any actual or potential misuse. It would be not only technologically impractical but also inconsistent with freedom of expression for TAMU to limit access to some newsgroups on the Internet, but not to others. The Study Group believes that the university community is best served by further development of guidelines regarding rights and responsibilities in the use of this technology. For example, the Study Group is reviewing existing university policies regarding illegal activity or acts of harassment to ensure that they apply to electronic communication. The Study Group plans to make recommendations for guidelines for use of electronic resources and the dissemination of appropriate university policy.

Appendix II

Framework for Information Policy

Educational institutions' access to computing resources and information is a right rather than a privilege. Access to computing resources and information shall not be denied or removed without just cause.

The institutional members of the electronic community of learners have a responsibility to provide all members of their community with legally acquired computer resources (hardware, software, networks, databases, etc.) in all instances when access to or use of the resources is an integral part of active participation in the electronic community of learners.

Openness

Privacy

Each citizen, as a member of the electronic community of learners, is responsible to all other citizens in that community: to respect and value the rights of privacy for all; to recognize and respect the diversity of the population and opinion in the community; to behave ethically; and to comply with legal restrictions regarding the use of information resources.

The institution shall treat electronically stored information as confidential. The institution shall treat all personal files as confidential, examining or disclosing the contents only when authorized by the owner of the information, approved by the appropriate institutional official, or required by law.

Intellectual Property

It shall be each citizen's personal responsibility to recognize (attribute) and honor the intellectual property of others.

Educational institutions in the electronic community of learners have ownership rights over the intellectual works they create.

Usefulness

Institutions in the electronic community of learners shall train and support faculty, staff, and students to use information technology effectively. Training includes skills necessary to use the resources, knowledge of the existence of the data repositories and techniques for using them, and an understanding of the ethical and legal uses of and responsibility for the resources.

Since the electronic community of learners is based upon the integrity of all information, it shall be each citizen's personal responsibility to be aware of the potential for and possible effects for manipulating electronic information: to understand the fungible nature of electronic information; and to verify the integrity and completeness of information that he or she compiles or uses.

It shall be each citizen's personal responsibility to actively pursue needed resources: to recognize when information is needed, and to be able to find, evaluate, and effectively use information.

Cost/Budget

Each citizen, as a member of the electronic community of learners, is responsible to all other citizens in that community: to respect and value the rights of privacy for all; to recognize and respect the diversity of the population and opinion in the community; to behave ethically; and to comply with legal restrictions regarding the use of information resources.

Security

Institutions have a responsibility to develop, implement, and maintain security procedures sufficient to ensure the integrity of individual and institutional files.

Framework for Information Policy

Access to basic network services should be affordable and available to all.

Individuals should have the right to choose what information to receive through the NII.

The NII should support and encourage a diversity of information providers in order to guarantee an open, fair, and competitive marketplace, with a full range of viewpoints.

The NII should ensure private, government and nonprofit participation in governance of the network.

Diversity of access should be protected through use of nonproprietary protocols.

Basic network access should be made available independent of geographic location.

Network access costs for libraries, educational organizations, government entities and non-profit groups should be stable, predictable and location insensitive.

Libraries should preserve and enhance their traditional roles in providing public access to information regardless of format.

Openness

Privacy

Comprehensive policies should be developed to ensure that the privacy of all people is protected.

Personal data collected to provide specific services should be limited to the minimum necessary.

Sharing data collected from individuals should only be permitted with their informed consent.

Individuals should have the right to inspect and correct data files on themselves.

Transaction data should remain confidential.

Intellectual Property

The intellectual property system should ensure a fair and equitable balance between rights of creators and other copyright owners and the needs of users.

Fair use and other exceptions to owners' rights in the copyright law should continue in the electronic environment.

Compensation systems must provide a fair and reasonable return to copyright owners.

Usefulness

Interoperability standards should be encouraged and tied to incentives for the use of those standards in awards for Federal funding.

A transition phase should provide compatibility between leading edge technology and trailing edge technology to allow users reasonable protection from precipitate change.

The Federal government should encourage interoperability standards and should tie incentives to the use of those standards.

Federal government information dissemination programs should adhere to interoperability standards.

Principles of interoperability should require directory and locator services, and nonproprietary search protocols, as well as a minimal set of data elements for the description of data bases.

Electronic information should be appropriately documented, organized and archived through the cooperative endeavors of information service providers and libraries.

Cost/Budget

Appendix III

Glossary

Browser: A generic term for programs that allow a user to look at various information sources using some kind of standard interface.

Bulletin Boards: Used both to describe: (1) News groups; and (2) individual computers running software that allows users to post/receive messages and transfer files. Usually allows anonymous access and not connected to the Internet.

Copyright: The legal right(s) of the creator/owner of a work to control the distribution or copying of that work.

Cyberspace: Loosely, the whole of the programs for access, the data available and the interactions occurring on the Internet. A term coined to emphasize that new customs may be required to govern interactions.

Dial-up: To access a system via telephone modem.

Electronic Information Services: Programs, protocols and computers set up to facilitate interaction among users.

Electronic Mail (e-mail): Sending messages and/or files to another person without requiring that person be using the computer at the same time. Analogous to the U.S. Postal Service, except not run by any government and therefore more reliable.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol/Program. A way of transferring files between computer systems using TCP/IP. An FTP server can allow anonymous access.

Gopher: A text-based browser.

Graphics: Pictures or icons or information other than solely text. May be stored electronically in a variety of formats.

Homepage: In the Web system, a file that serves as the root of a hypertext tree of information, normally intended for anonymous access.

Images: See Graphics.

Intellectual Property: While computer systems make information easy to duplicate, most countries recognize that ideas or expressions of ideas may be property. Patents, copyrights and trade secrets are examples of intellectual property rights.

Internet: The worldwide collection of interconnected networks that use the TCP/IP protocol suite.

Mosaic: "Brandname" for a point-and-click browser capable of displaying information in many formats.

News: Also Usenet news. News consists of a varying number of groups, or categories, where users may post (write) and read information. Each posting is sent to all other computer systems that receive that category. Groups are normally oriented around a particular topic. News readers are programs that allow users to see what groups are available and read individual postings.

Nintendo Generation: Those who have grown up when interactive electronic devices (VCRs, video games, PCs) were common in the home.

Teleconference: The ability of several users to exchange voice and video information in realtime, as if they were meeting in the same place instead of over the network.

Usenet: A group of computer systems owned by different organizations that pass e-mail and other information among themselves. Preceded, but now largely absorbed by, the Internet.

Web: Also, the World Wide Web (WWW). The collection of information made available by systems using the HTTP protocol. This information is designed to be browsed in a point-and-click manner, and to allow user access without knowing the messy details of transfer and display protocols.

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Di Lello, Edward V., "Functional equivalency and its application to freedom of speech on computer bulletin boards," Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems 26 (1993): 199-247.

Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF). Computers and Academic Freedom Homepage, and Frequently Asked Questions about Computers and Academic Freedom, http://www.eff.org/CAF/cafhome.html

Emery, Judith, "A critique of the principles of censorship," Collection Management 18:3/4 (1994): 63-69.

Godwin, Mike, "SOLO contendere: free speech vs. sex discrimination online," Internet World (February 1995): 90-93.

Hoffman, Lance J. ed. Building in big brother. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995.

How to receive a banned newsgroup frequently asked questions list, http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~jg11772/banned-groups-faq.html

Information policies: a compilation of position statements, principles, statutes, and other pertinent statements. Washington, D.C.: Coalition for Networked Information, 1991.

Lemisch, Jesse, "Point of view: the first amendment is under attack in cyberspace," Chronicle of Higher Education (January 20, 1995)., Carlin, "Reclaiming sex from the pornographers: cybersexual possibilities," Georgetown Law Journal 83(1995): 1969-2008.

Nimmer, Raymond T. and Patricia Ann Krauthaus, "Copyright on the Information Superhighway: Requiem for the Middleweight," Stanford Law and Policy Review 6(1994): 25-42.

Proposed policy for providing access to networked electronic resources, draft B 4/27/95, Carnegie Mellon Uuniversity, http://www-cgi.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/kcf/www/censor/committee/draft-B.html

Rezmierski, Virginia, "Computers, Pornography, and Conflicting Rights," Educom Review 30:2 (1995): 42-44.

Rimm, Marty, "Marketing pornography on the information superhighway: a survey of 917,410 images, descriptions, short stories, and animations downloaded 8.5 million times by consumers in over 2000 cities in forty countries, provinces, and territories," Georgetown Law Journal 83(1995): 1849-1925.

Rose, Lance. Netlaw: your rights in the online world. New York: Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1995.

Rosenburg, Richard S., "Free speech, pornography, sexual harassment, and electronic networks," The Information Society 9 (1993): 285-331.

Samuelson, Pamela, "Legally speaking: first amendment rights for information providers?," Communications of the ACM 34:6 (June 1991): 19-23.

Trubow, George B., "Watching the watchers: the coordination of federal privacy policy," Software Law Journal 3 (1989): 391-411.

Whitaker, Jr., G. R., Provost, Letter to Deans and Department Chairs, "Potentially offensive material from electronic sources," University of Michigan, December 1, 1994.

Laws and University Policy

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, United States Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 47, Section 47.1030.

Communications Privacy Act, United States Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 119. Sections 2510 to 2711.

State of Texas

Computer Crime, Codes Annotated, Title 7, Chaper 33, Sections 33.01 to 33.05

Ethics Advisory Opinion No. 134, April 1, 1993.

Texas State Records Retention Schedule, Texas State Library, September, 1994.

University Policy

Computer Security Policy, Texas A&M University, January 20, 1995.

Discrimination-Free Campus Policy, Memorandum from President Modley, November 5, 1991.

Ethics Policy, Texas A&M University System Policyes07.01. (Section 8.3 deal with incidental use of e-mail.); and Memorandum from President Bowen, dated May 19, 1995.

Retention and Disposition of Public Records; Texas A&M University Policy and Procedures Manual, Section 1.2.3.

Sexual Harassment Policy, Texas A&M University Policy and Procedures Manual, Section 2.3.1.

Last Modified: 11:30am DST, September 21, 1995