At 11:27 AM -0400 9/13/00, Jay Holovacs wrote:
You really don't seem to get it, defending the right to speech is NOT the same as defending the content (though I understand that nowhere do they advocate violence to children)
Remember, Jodi, the *same* law that should be protecting their speech protects you and your allies from being prosecuted each time a gay is murdered or an abortion clinic bombed.
Actually, the tide of civil lawsuits against all sorts of organizations is rising. Aryan Nations was just ordered to pay some multimillion dollar fee because some woman was harassed or attacked or had her feelings hurt--not sure which--by some people she claimed were connected to or influenced by AN. I watched noted spinster Alan Dershowitz expostulating that lawsuits to bankrupt Aryan Nation are _good_, becuase AN espouses hate, but that lawsuits against NAMBLA are _bad_, for some reason I didn't stick around long enough to hear. This issue of lawsuits about speech is a terribly important one. It tends to get lost in the debate when people say "But the _government_ is not suppressing speech!" Actually, it _is_. By court decisions, by even letting such lawsuits go forward, it is supporting such suppressions of speech. "SLAPP" suits are another example. ("Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation," as when a lumber company slaps a civil lawsuit on a critic of their logging operations. Even the _filing_ of a lawsuit essentially forces the target to hire his own $400 an hour lawyers. (Yeah, I know what Duncan would say: "Throw the subpoena away. Make yourself judgement-proof. Ignore the matter." Well, nice theory, hard in practice for anyone with real assets.)_ We as a culture have swung far away from "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" toward a culture of lawsuits. And the lawyer lobby supports and embraces this culture, getting laws passed making it easier every day to suppress speech. Crypto helps in various ways, of course. Both Aryan Nations and NAMBLA will be helped, along with Friends of the Earth and Pacific Lumber. Censorious bitches like Jodi Hoffman will splutter. --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.