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Show QUESTION! Should WSU restrict access to Internet porn via university-owned computers? r .. - -, . "The majority of us here on campus are adults, and we should be able to do what we want as far as Internet access goes." Markus Williams, freshman undeclared "We are all consenting adults, we know what's right and what's wrong. We can all make decisions for ourselves."Thomas Roybal, junior undeclared Student from front page nor, a second-degree felony. Special Agent Scott Wall of the Federal Bureau of Investigation met with LcBlanc on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the case and review the evidence, according to a follow-up report Wall told LeBlanc he would check to see if any of the companies which ..,(..1 SAVE $10 REG $ 25.95 Mmwi $9? LilW I IHI IW I , .!- Vwijl 24,995 A. a JO-kvm WHOLESALE ,w,wM:r;;; 1-888-720-0060 SERVING L SldH PREMIER STEEL 1-800-973-3366 "We pay our student fees, and since the computer labs are pan of what our money goes for, we should be able to access what we want. But I don't think it's appropriate to be downloading certain stuff." Kristi Shupe, senior accounting I i "I think with the obvious sites, like all the pornography sites, they should be able to because they're the ones paying for the computers. If those people want to look at it, they can do it at home." Cami Hyer, freshman nursing produced the material were under investigation and would consult the U.S. Attorney's Office regarding possible prosecution by federal authorities. In a phone interview Thursday, Wall said that while he was not at liberty to make any press releases, he told The Signpost the case had "been left in the hands of Weber State Police and the Weber County Attorney." Pending the outcome of prosecution on state charges, Wall said he may contact the U.S. Attorney's office regarding federal prosecution. niih Pre-Order Special "THE WORK AND THE GLORY" (VOLUME 9) FINAL VOLUME Seagull Book & Tape IO STORES IN UTAH AND 4 OUT OF STATE TOLL FREE 1-800-425-030S TopQualit; Top Quality Homes at Guaranteed Lowest Price. V'i-r QUALITY Porn access By Taj lor S. Fielding editor in chicf-77ie Signpost The viewing of pornography on the Internet using computers owned by Weber State University is not a new issue in fact, the student senate passed a resolution regarding this issue in May 1997. The resolution, "To Pom or Not to Pom," was proposed by then-senators James Kammeyer and Jason Nalder. According to an article in the May 21,1 997 edition of The Signpost, the resolution called for "the administration, specifically Don Gardner, chief information officer, to take a stand and formulate a policy regarding students accessing pornography onuniversity-owned computers." However, the resolution stated that the creation of the policy would occur within 90 days of a court ruling on the constitutionality of part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 known as the Communications Decency Act. The act signed into law by President Clinton, would have made it a felony to display indecent and or patently offensive material on the Internet, punishable by two years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to a Time Magazine article. In July 1996, two panels of three federal judges both blocked the enforcement of the act, ruling that was unconstitutional with one of the panels stating that the act is "an overboard prohibition on constitutionally protected indecent speech between adults," as reported in an Associated Press Article. Then, in June 1 997, the United States Supreme Court revoked the law, again on the basis that it was overly broad and vague. Currently, the only policies regarding the viewing of pornography on the Internet are found in the WSU policy and procedures manual and the WSU student code. "There is no policy specifically addressing pornography on campus," For Engineering, Computer Science, Management and other majors. Graduates and Undergraduates. 6-month and 1-year paid internships in Japan. Sponsored by the Utah Asian Studies ConsortiumUS Japan Center. Includes round-trip airfare, a scholarship, and a stipend of approximately $1500 a month. Deadline: October 7, iS Apply at US Japan Center--WSU, WB 21 1 --(801)626-7203 US Japan Center-UU, 401 BUC-(801)585-3651 limited by law, not policy Gardner said. Gardner said he was contacted by a researcher who was attempting to find out what, if anything, institutions of higher education were doing to restrict pornography on their campuses. "The only one institution attempting to do anything to control pornogrpahy on their campus was, not surprisingly, BYU," he said. "And they were not hav ing great success." According to an e-mail message to Lisa Ravcnwood, student computer lab coordinator, from Gardner, regarding the viewing of pornography on WSU-owned computers, two entries in the: policy and procedures manual may apply to this situation. The first entry, PPM 2-11 VIII states, "College computing facilities are provided for the use of students and employees in academic and administrative work related to the goals and functions of the College. Users should avoid excessive demands on computing resources that may encroach on other's legitimate access and use," according to the e-mail. "You can argue then that the personal downloading of pornography is not appropriate,'" Gardner said. . The second entry, PPM 3-32 LB. suites, "No student or employee of the University may engage in illegally harassing conduct which creates a hostile work or learning environment for other students or employees of the University." Regarding enforcement of these policies, Ravenwood said the computer lab aides will usually approach the person accessing the pornography, ask the person if the work they are doing is academic and then the person usually leaves. "It hasn't really been a problem," Ravenwood said. "What one person may call art another person may call pornography. But it hasn't been a real big issue for us to spend a considerable amount of time on." In addition, an entry also exists in Paid Internships the WSU student code regarding the use of computer labs. The entry states, "avoid unethical, wasteful and or inappropriate use of any computer system, library or other campus resource and interference with the productivity of others." One practice that Utah state law makes illegal is child pornography. The law, specifically called sexual exploitation of a minor, states a person is guilty of that crime if the actor knowingly produces, distributes, possesses or possesses with intent to distribute, material or live performances depicting a nude or partially nude minor for the purpose of sexual arousal of any purpose or any person's engagement in sexual conduct with (lie minor, according to the Utah Suite Criminal Code, Annotated 1998 edition. The law defines a minor as any person younger than 1 8 years of age. In addition to the senate resolution calling for the development of a policy, one of the computer lab directors, Robert Capener, went so far as to propose removing Internet access from all but a handful of computers in the computer science computing lab, according to a May 30, 1997 article in The Signpost.. According to Robert Peterson, chairman of the computer science department, while the Internet access was not removed from the computers, the department and the lab aides have stepped up the monitoring of computers for nonacademic use. Gardner said he recently attended a session at a conference which dealt with filtering and censoring of material from the Internet "It's a very complex issue," Gardner said. "The only place where it looked like people were having some success was in the workplace. Corporate computer networks can control, and do, what sites people access. In a university setting, the concensus seemed to be that it was virtually impossible." Dealerships Available! 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