To The Editor:

I would like to take the time to thank Erica Brizzi for her informative article on the Internet. It’s great when a writer takes the time to present both sides of the issue in an unbiased way. I particularly liked the way she avoided sensationalizing this issue, and jumping on the “bash the net” bandwagon.

The very fact that she resisted using cliche terms like “cyber” really made the article worth reading, and the personal anectode of the poor girl, who accidentally saw something she found offensive, almost had me in tears.

Oh, the innocence destroyed… ah, the audacity. I’m ready to beat up her ex-boyfriend now! If only you’d published his name. We should pass a law, so people like April Greenbeck can exercise her right not to be offended! Umm, we do have such a right, don’t we?

I came to college to get an education, and now, due to Brizzi’s concise definition of pornography, I will now know it when I see it (and just think, it’s only a click away on the net. This is news!). I really admire a newspaper that isn’t scared to lead the fight against free speech!

I am still in awe of the fact that the Daily did not choose to put a picture of nude women next to the article. The picture of the woman with electrical tape over her breasts was the new DPS homepage, wasn’t it? IMHO (a cliche Internet term. Forgive me, I’m trying to be as cool as Brizzi) that’s just cool.

The university can’t restrict WWW. It stands for World Wide Web (key word: World). Most of the best sites are in other countries. Most of the rest of the world doesn’t care what some Washington senator says should be on the net.

The policy ISU has is against USENET newsgroups, not the Web. You concentrate on negative aspects and pictures, when the majority of what ISU censors is text, much is informative, and the idea of passing judgement on the rest is scary to me.

My last concern is that it appears that you assigned this article about the ISU USENET policy to a student that doesn’t have an ISU e-mail account. I’m sure that this isn’t true, and that it’s somehow an oversight on my part, but I just can’t find it.

Oh, and please tell April Greenbeck that ex-boyfriends don’t always have your best interests in mind.

If anyone is interested in discussing Internet censorship, USENET censorship, the Coalition for Electronic Freedom (formally Students for Electronic Freedom, or SEF), or would like a guided tour of the Web, contact me at [email protected] or view my homepage at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~argent/ but please, tell April that my page is only suitable for adults.

Also, could you send me a list of any interesting URLs your in-depth research may have uncovered? I only want to look at pictures.

Christopher Jorgensen

Senior

English

Erica Brizzi’s original article can be found here.