E-Mail Reminds Us Internet Is Fragile

Last week witnessed a forceful backlash against Dan A. Simons '99, who recently misused Harvard's e-mail resources to mass-mail an advertisement for an a cappella concert. While we disagree with the magnitude of the campus' reaction, we agree with its general principles.

The hapless first-year was exercising the ambition characteristic of Harvard students when he used his word processor to cut and paste addresses into an advertisement for last week's Opportunes-Callbacks concert. While he may have gained some concert-goers, he also drew a barrage of tongue-lashings. Former Digitas president Jeff C. Tarr '96 called it a "horrible waste of resources" and "bad e-mail etiquette." And Paul Martin, chair of the Faculty of Arts Sciences Committee on Information Technology insisted that mass mailings could "bring the system to its knees." The most extreme reaction was a piece of anonymous graffiti scrawled on Simons' message board, which called him an "immoral e-mail freak." We can envision whoever wrote that little epithet wrapping his arms around his computer and whispering "don't worry, it'll be all right."

What concerns us is that the excesses of the reaction may turn the campus off to an important long-term issue. While Simons' mailing may have been an innocent mistake, it serves as a reminder of how fragile the Internet is. The value of the 'Net is the free exchange of information, and any action that retards this flow should be discouraged. One mass e-mail won't have much effect on Harvard's resources, but several such mailings might. If advertisements like Simons' became commonplace, Harvard would probably be forced to implement software filters that would prevent mailings to more than a certain number of addresses. The only other alternative would be to vigorously prosecute mass-mailers. Either solution would penalize users who have a legitimate, non-commercial need to mass-mail.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the student handbook forbids forwarding chain letters or "broadcasting" messages indiscriminately. The vagueness of this prohibition implies that it is meant to ward off potential problems rather than to deal with current ones. It still, however, makes Simons' actions an Ad-Boardable offense.

We sincerely hope that he will not be punished for his transgression, and we would like to see FAS computer services transfer its energies from reprimanding Simons to taking steps to deter such actions in the future. Adding a line to the text that appears when one connects to "fas" might be appropriate. The line could mention mass-mailings as a punishable offense, and perhaps suggest that the user post to a news-group instead.

The Internet exists as a great anarchic town-meeting. The effectiveness of any such gathering depends on the behavior of the community. If individuals cannot regulate their own actions, then a higher power will inevitably step in and in doing so will decrease the value of the 'Net to all its users.