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Re: INLS310: Resource controls (was "Entertainment Weekly")


Former students don't have any free speech right to maintaining a page,
just as a former student wouldn't have any right to continuning to work as
a reporter for the student newspaper.

Sites created as class projects fall under the control of the teacher as
part of the curriculum.  Seems like if the page is abandoned by the
teacher, the student should have an option of maintaing it in the disk
space allocated for the student's personal page.

Here's an example, last summer, I created a site for Duke Gardens as a 181
project, yet the site was still up and being maintained by the co-creater
(another student) last fall. If the teacher wants to keep sites as examples
to future classes, that's between him and the system administrator. It's a
question of curricular resources. If the teacher wants to toss it out, then
I or the other student should maintain it in allocated personal space. If
neither of us want to keep it, then delete it.

All this seems to hold true for the "fan" page, depending on who created it
and why? As for the copyright violations, the courts have told public
universities that keeping their hands off of content in students newspapers
removes them from liability for the content, even in cases of libel. Courts
have also said that "indecent" and "obscenity" are not automatic
justifications for rushing in to censor. Seems like this would also hold
true for copyright violations. You create it; you bear responsibility for
it.

As for commercial use of a student's web space, I think that's going to be
decided in a courtroom in the next few years. If the student newspaper
analogy holds, then students would have that option.

CYA

*************************************************************
*       Joey Senat                                          *
*       Doctoral Student                                    *
*       School of Journalism & Mass Communication           *
*       University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill          *
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*       E-Mail:  jsenat@email.unc.edu                       *
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