Looks like more of a push for regulation: Charles Bell thought you all might have something to say about this... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ABA SCI/TECH SECTION, IPPP COMMITTEE LAW AND ETHICS ON THE "NETS" December 8, 1994 The John Marshall Law School's Center for Informatics Law, in conjunction with the ABA Section of Science & Technology Committee on Information Practices, Policies, and Privacy, is undertaking a project entitled, "Law and Ethics on the 'Nets'" (LEON). The development of a national information infrastructure and a global electronic network, of which Internet is the backbone, has presented a multitude of legal and ethical problems involving use and abuse of the networks, nationally and worldwide. Almost on a daily basis, news items announce electronic network transmissions constituting hate mail, profanity, vulgarity, obscenity, child pornography, sexual harassment, defamation and invasion of privacy. The violation of intellectual property rights and information system security are also frequent occurrences. National and international discussions consider such questions as what "rules of the road" ought to apply, who can make them, how can they be enforced, and what will be the legal and political relationships between states and nations regarding cyberspace? It is argued that at present the lawless, the intolerant and the disrespectful seem able to pollute the worldwide information stream with little constraint. Certainly, the current state of anarchy in national and global electronic networks cannot continue if the technology is to achieve the remarkable benefits that have been predicted in terms of communications among institutions and individuals, whether government, business or society at large. The purpose of the CIL/S&T project is to promote a dialogue that can lead to recommendations for treating with the many issues at hand. We solicit the participation of the Sci/Tech IPPP Committee (and interested others!) in addressing the foregoing issues. Please send me your expression of interest -- indicating what specific aspects of the various questions you would like to address, and then I'll organize us into some working groups. PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR INTERESTS BY JANUARY 9, 1995, SO WE CAN STRUCTURE THE PROJECT AND PROMPTLY GET UNDER WAY. We plan a program on the project for the ABA annual meeting in Chicago next August, and we hope to generate a publication for the Section concerning the project results. George B. Trubow, Professor of Law Director, Center for Informatics Law The John Marshall Law School 315 S. Plymouth Ct. Chicago, IL 60604-3907 Fax: 312-427-8307; Voice: 312-987-1445 E-mail: 7trubow@jmls.edu Marsha Woodbury marsha-w@uiuc.edu U of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign FAX 217-356-7050 Home 217-337-0001 Work 217-244-0780 http://www.cpsr.org/dox/global.html