CHANNEL TALK - The University of strife

U-Net, the internet service provider (ISP), has been accused by one of its long-standing customers of 'dictatorial censorship', not to mention 'wanton primitive brutality'. In a fax sent to PC Squealer, Peter Quinn demanded compensation for the alleged destruction of his Web pages. PC Squealer decided to investigate. Speaking to U-Net, the situation became clearer.

The ISP has a major contract with Janet - the Joint Academic Network - providing a dialup information service for students and university staff throughout the UK. Quinn, it appears, was using his site to sell education-related products and U-Net's more recognised academic clients took exception. The name? Fake Degrees and Impressive Diplomas.

A representative at U-Net said: 'Because U-Net is an academic provider it looks as if we are authorising him to act in an academic field. At least, it may look that way to a naive student using the dialup service. Last week, UCAS and Warwick University complained and requested that we disable his site.'

No doubt Quinn would argue that with the rising cost of further education, he was providing a valuable service for people who simply couldn't afford three years of tuition fees and living expenses.