Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Judge: Employee Web surfing not unreasonable

"It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work,"

Personally while I agree with the assertion that the web is now a general source of "communication and information" much like other mediums I disagree with the ruling. Don't get me wrong, I use the web at work all the time, would be lost without it and think any workplace having such a rule is galactically stupid. Yet I still think rules of what you can do on your employers time with your employers equipment and bandwidth should be up to your employer. If the rule says you cant do it in the office then you cant do it in the office. If you keep doing it and get busted then you should be subject to whatever penalty the rule outlines.

That said if your workplace has such a rule and you like to surf the web once in a while (not to mention how asinine it is that the computers in this case are even connected to the web if using it is prohibitied - or at least to the general web if the job only requires explicit site access) then lobby to get the rule changed BEFORE YOU BREAK IT - or quit that jackass job and get a different one.

The notion that you should fight with your employer later to reduce your infraction over a legitimate existing rule is a little silly. Fight the fight before you get in trouble not three year old style after you have broken the rules.