One might think that being a professor at Harvard University would be enough. Receiving tenure at the most prestigious university in the country used to be the pinnacle of a career in academia.

But professors like Arthur R. Miller and Michael J. Sandel are still out to conquer the rest of the academic world.

Sandel--who has recorded his lectures for release to the public--and Miller, who attempted to release his lectures online, are testing the University's revised policies to monitor faculty members' for-profit or for-prestige activities.

"The more like a regular course an activity is, the less likely it is to be permitted," says Associate Provost Dennis F. Thompson, the chair of the Faculty Committee on Outside Activity. "But obviously there are going to be some gray areas."

The Internet explosion has made the gray areas more gray.

Rule-bending--and in some cases rule-breaking--has become the norm for several professors.

But faculty argue that promoting their research by writing books and lecturing is their job, and that their value to the faculty is as a researcher and a writer, as well as a teacher.

"Publication is a traditional part of what professors do," says Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah. "The main thing is that you have to be able to meet your responsibilities as a teacher."