@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 Sender: Henry Huang <•••@••.•••> Subject: Re: cr> On responses to CDA Continuing the current thread on the legal implications of the CDA ... There's a nice article in the current edition of the GNN Web Review, on the implications of civil lawsuits on Net speech. The author states that "threats of criminal prosecution are not the only clouds on the virtual horizon. Civil litigation, or the threat of civil litigation, can be an effective tool for chilling free speech. It's a fact that gets very little publicity, but one which is having a profound effect on our society." Under his scenario, the threat of lawsuits would drive large providers to deliberately restrict *any* offensive speech under threat of lawsuit, and would drive smaller providers out of business since they don't even have the money to defend themselves. End result: fewer and larger ISP's, less freedom of speech. The URL is: http://gnn.com/gnn/wr/96/01/12/views/law/index.html Anyone who'd like to explain/refine the author's arguments is more than welcome to do so. The differences between criminal and civil suits have been overlooked in the rush to question the CDA's Constitutionality, and I'd personally like to hear more on the implications. -H @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Moderator Note: In this regard, recall the the Church of Scientology copyright-infringement actions that have plagued various ISV's/BBS's bigtime. The opportunity for harrassing actions was abundantly demonstrated. The concerns expressed by the Wiesenthal Center could easily find expression as civil actions as well. Also keep in mind the campaign for stricter copyright enforcement, which has appeared as a thread on this list before. It's not just "offensive" material that we need to worry about. Copyrighted product information might be construed to prevent public discussion of product defects (this is very parallel to the CoS case). Could copyrighted news stories somehow be construed to delimit discussion of news subjects themselves? The point I'm making is that powerful lobbying interests are pushing aggressively for a strict "information is property" paradigm for cyberspace. The net's prairies are to be fenced in. It's difficult to predict the details of how this will proscribe cyber freedom-of-expression and -association. Just to explore one possibility, as an example, employees might be required to sign over copyrights to their employer of anything they say related to work or that uses any corporate hardware or email system. Quite an impediment to whistle-blowers. Yours, Richard @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland Cyber-Rights: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/ CyberLib: http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib Materials may be reposted in their entirety for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
