Jason Schultz, the LawGeek has a set of three posts here, here , and here discussing Penn State's decision to ban students from having servers. Edward Felten also comments at Freedom-to-tinker.
Everything cannot be locked down. When we try to do it, we get lost in a tangle that usually ends up leading us somewhere that begins to remind us of Charles Dickens and Hard Times:
'You are to be in all things regulated and governed,' said the gentleman, 'by fact. We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You have nothing to do with it. You are not to have, in any object of use of ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact. You don't walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets. You don't find that foreign birds and butterflies come and perch upon your crockery. You never meet with quadrupeds going up and down walls; you must not have quadrupeds represented upon walls. You must use,' said the gentleman, 'for all these purposes, combinations and modifications (in primary colours) of mathematical figures which are susceptible of proof and demonstration. This is the new discovery. This is fact. This is taste.'
Thomas Grandgrind found, much to his dismay that this approach didn't work out all that well. And yet, it's not an easy task, keeping systems up and running, making sure the universities don't get sued and allowing things to happen that might not be specifically accounted for. For universities that manage and continue to do these things we all owe a debt of gratitude.
Posted by dcoates at May 20, 2004 03:34 PM