Freedom of Speech    

The Czech Republic vs. The United States

Chris Henry, Jennifer Lemkul, Brian Maher, Max Moldenhauer, Mike Richmond

Scenario

During the Christmas break 1996, it was brought to our attention by an alumnus who had taken the 'Profesionalism [sic] in Computing' course that a freshmen [sic] student had a home page on CSUGRAD that was 'interesting.' An examination of the page revealed that the page had a background that was clearly marijuana plants, and the page contained several images that displayed drug paraphernalia and linked to off-campus pages that sold drug supplies. The student's account was immediately frozen.

Confronted the student gave two arguments in his defense: (1) This was basically the same home page that he had produced in high school, and which was approved by his teachers there, and (2) There were several other student home pages with similar messages. Questioned further, he agreed to provide the URL's of other students who has similar pages.

An examination of these pages showed that two of them had similar drug-related pages while one other was a built around the theme of 'white supremacy' with several links to the home pages of organizations with similar leanings.

The accounts of each of these students were similarly frozen and the students were requested to come in for an interview. Each of these students claimed to be unaware of any regulations that would prohibit their use of such visual effects as parts of their home pages, and felt it was part of their 'freedom of speech' to express such views.

Citing the university and departmental computer usage policies that prohibit 'inappropriate use' of computer systems, and the university policies regarding drug and alcohol usage, and on racial activities, it was decided to recind [sic] the student's access to CSUGRAD for the remainder of the academic year and to require the student's [sic] to reapply for access in Fall 1997. The contents of the student's directories were archived.

The student who was originally identified as having an inappropriate home page was forgiven and his access was reinstated after a two month suspension, with the understanding that he will redo his home page.

Were the punishments just and appropriate?"

Content originally from:

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/support/Debates/Scenarios.html#20

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