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AU may take action against gossip site
By Ethan Klapper on 10/9/08
AU will not take any action against the Juicy Campus Web site until it sees what action Georgetown University takes, according to Associate Dean of Students Sara Waldron.
The AU community has been reacting to the Web site since it established an AU site Sept. 26.
Waldron said Georgetown will be "taking some action" and AU is waiting to see what action this is.
"We've contacted them to see what they're doing with the site," she said. "We're going to wait and see what Georgetown does."
Waldron said it would be difficult to pursue judicial action.
"This becomes a free speech issue, this is not something that we would pursue judicially," she said.
School of Communication associate professor John Watson, an expert on media law, said AU has the right to censor the site but doubts it will.
"You would be hard pressed to find a university that would shut down First Amendment access," he said.
Pursuing legal action against the operators of Juicy Campus is possible but not worth it because sites like it are often immune from taking legal responsibility for the postings that the site's users make, Watson said.
"Anyone who discovers the defamatory statement can give the Web site a reasonable amount of time to take it down," he said. "If they don't, they can sue them. It would take years before this is all done. Unless you're an attorney yourself, you're looking at [legal fees of] $100,000 or more."
Cathy Hubbs, AU's chief information security officer, said AU has censored Web sites in the past.
"We do this on occasion, however, only after verifying that it is a threat to our network computing resources or community or receiving a request from General Counsel," she said in an e-mail.
Gertold Hasanbelliu, a junior in the School of International Service, said he feels the site is immature.
"I think a lot of stuff on there is very immature but not surprising given the anonymous nature of the site," he said.
The AU community has been reacting to the Web site since it established an AU site Sept. 26.
Waldron said Georgetown will be "taking some action" and AU is waiting to see what action this is.
"We've contacted them to see what they're doing with the site," she said. "We're going to wait and see what Georgetown does."
Waldron said it would be difficult to pursue judicial action.
"This becomes a free speech issue, this is not something that we would pursue judicially," she said.
School of Communication associate professor John Watson, an expert on media law, said AU has the right to censor the site but doubts it will.
"You would be hard pressed to find a university that would shut down First Amendment access," he said.
Pursuing legal action against the operators of Juicy Campus is possible but not worth it because sites like it are often immune from taking legal responsibility for the postings that the site's users make, Watson said.
"Anyone who discovers the defamatory statement can give the Web site a reasonable amount of time to take it down," he said. "If they don't, they can sue them. It would take years before this is all done. Unless you're an attorney yourself, you're looking at [legal fees of] $100,000 or more."
Cathy Hubbs, AU's chief information security officer, said AU has censored Web sites in the past.
"We do this on occasion, however, only after verifying that it is a threat to our network computing resources or community or receiving a request from General Counsel," she said in an e-mail.
Gertold Hasanbelliu, a junior in the School of International Service, said he feels the site is immature.
"I think a lot of stuff on there is very immature but not surprising given the anonymous nature of the site," he said.
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Sean Coast
posted 10/18/08 @ 9:46 PM EST
Hello,
Southern Oregon University is violating my rights to free speech. I walked into an Albertsons super market in Ashland where a drunk clerk(Teddi)berated me. (Continued…)
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