News arrived this week via the Electronic Frontier Foundation that Michigan State University had dropped disciplinary action against a student who had been accused of spamming and network abuse because she sent e-mail about a controversial campus matter to 391 faculty members.

That justice prevailed seems obvious from afar, but it had me wondering if the situation would have been far stickier in a slightly different setting. I'll get to that in a moment.

The university initially argued that the student, Kara Spencer, had violated acceptable-use policy by failing to gain prior permission for her e-mail, which reached about 8% of the MSU faculty (any amount above 30 messages triggered the provision). EFF called that restriction unconstitutional and was preparing to file legal action.

From the EFF press release: "We're pleased that MSU has reversed course and will not only drop the charge against Ms. Spencer, but will reconsider its flawed policies," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "When a school's anti-spam policy requires students to get approval before they discuss school policy with school officials, it has plainly left the realm of protecting against spam and has violated the Constitution."

Score one for the First Amendment. However, the thought did occur to me: Would the issue be viewed any differently -- by the law or civil libertarians -- had this been a private university instead of a state (read: government-run) one?

I asked Cohn via e-mail. Her reply: "It would have been a more complicated analysis but I don't know that it would necessarily have meant that the policy was OK either."

I agree that the distinction would not make the policy OK -- as in reasonable, prudent or fair -- but I do believe the legal case would be significantly more difficult if not altogether untenable. (I'm no lawyer; Cohn is, obviously.)

Surely there is little doubt that a private employer can place restrictions on the use of e-mail that would have made Spencer's 391-piece delivery a violation of company policy subject to disciplinary action.

Now make the jump from private employer to private university: Is it really that much of a leap?

Feel free to discuss.

How many phones do you have?

Slashdot this week was asking in one of its polls: "How many phones do you have? Count wired phone extensions, cell phones, smartphones, and installed VoIP apps on all computers that you use regularly."