Because of the ease with which lectures can be uploaded to the Internet, time is no longer an obstacle for professors who want to bend the rules. The issue, say FAS officials, is whether outside activities themselves can be considered ethical.

University administrators are concerned that if professors make the content of their lectures availible to the general public, the 'exclusive' Harvard education that students should be receiving may be compromised.

"The Harvard name has been built up over centuries...and one must worry about the quality of anything that has the name attached to it," says Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

Thompson says the University's policy should make it impermissible for a Harvard faculty member to try to teach somewhere else.

"Harvard students come expecting a distinctively Harvard education and we have an obligation to provide an experience here that we don't provide to the rest of the world," Thompson says. "If you are a full time Harvard faculty member, you should not be devoting your time to Yale."

But the question of whether 'teaching' also includes virtual teaching is one that is still unanswered.

But some argue that the point is moot because nothing--even videotaped lectures--is the same as an actual course at Harvard.