University Spam

stew1 writes "In an unprecedented move, the Students for George W. Bush spammed everyone at the University of Iowa today (~40,000 people). The Powers That Be says they had to let the &%^*#@ers do it because of the Freedom of Information Act, an interesting argument. Are there any laws or rulings that would counteract their position? "

An excellent use of FOI laws, IMHO, but probably not such a great use of computing resources. I'm assuming the scenario went like this: our young capital punishment enthusiasts filed a FOI request with the University seeking the usernames of every student at the University; which the University provided. Is there more information about the FOI request? Colleges tend to fight these tooth and nail. Now, the second part seems murkier: FOI law certainly doesn't say anything about the school having to permit any student or group to spam 40,000 people. If it was done from a student account, they ought to rm -rf * that sucker. If it was done from outside, still, it's fairly obvious who's responsible, right? Fry 'em. -- michael

Freedom of Information, my a$$!

[ford42]

The Freedom of Information Act [cornell.edu] expressly states:

This section does not apply to matters that are [...] personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

That's 5 USC 552(b)(6).

5 USC 551 provides the definition of the "agencies" which the FOI applies to:

''agency'' means each authority of the Government of the United States, whether or not it is within or subject to review by another agency.

I suppose that a federally funded university would qualify under this provision... anybody know for sure?

Politics check - dirty tricks?

[Seth Finkelstein]

Is it confirmed that the mailing was indeed sent by the Bush group? I'm not saying it wasn't, but this sounds like it would be a great "dirty trick" to pull to get people annoyed at the group.

FOI request for all usernames? ACK! Seems like a lot of work for information that could mostly be gathered programatically.

- The Boston Lunatic