Miata Mailing List: August 1998, Message #1286

Just curious...
WHO made it your responsibility to police the internet?  There is no
doubt that Amber's post was in bad taste, and I wasn't going to get
involved in this one because, as others have said, if it is ignored it
will go away, but now you are talking about censorship.

To clarify what happened, for whatever reason Amber searched the
internet and recovered public information (information that was posted
for the public to access and read) about Sonja and posted it to this
server.  This is the "cyberspace" equivalent of the National Enquirer
taking embarrasing pictures of drunk celebrities and plastering them on
the cover of their magazine.

The information that Amber posted was, in fact, originally posted to the
internet by none other than Sonja herself.  Since Sonja hasn't
protested, I would guess that the information hasn't been altered by
Amber.  The only thing that Amber did was put a copy of Sonja's public
information here on the listserver.

I know that this act shocked everybody, myself included, but there is
nothing illegal about it.  By complaining to her e-mail provider you are
saying, in effect, "I am offended.  Punish this person for offending
me."  This is a common human reaction, but if no laws were broken (and
it appears that none were) there is no legal requirement for Yahoo to
terminate the account.  Inciting a mass of complaints that causes Yahoo
to terminate the account could be seen as harrasment and might leave you
open for Amber to take legal action against you.  I know it is shitty,
but Amber's post did not cause any real harm (loss of status, loss of
resources, etc.) while having her account closed out does cause a loss
of e-mail capability to Amber.

The first ammendment guarantees the right to speak freely, and slander
and lible laws are used to correct situations where fraudulent and
malicious information defames a person's character.  Slander and lible
laws cannot be used if the information is acknowleged as being
accurate.  To try to shut down one person who posts something you don't
want to read endangers every web citizen.  If you can shut off one
person there is nothing to keep you from shutting off all the people.

Chris

"I might not agree with what you say, but I will die defending your
right to say it" - Benjamin Franklin