85 mids punished for illegal Net use

Eighty-five Naval Academy midshipmen were disciplined for using a military Internet connection to illegally trade copyrighted music and movies, according to published reports.

Officials stopped short of their threat to expel or court-martial the students, instead punishing the midshipmen with sanctions ranging from demerits and extra work to loss of privileges and leave, an academy document obtained by the The (Baltimore) Sun showed.

Academy spokesman Cmdr. Bill Spann declined to comment yesterday on why the school chose not to impose its harshest penalties.

The academy seized 92 student computers in a widely publicized...