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