At 10:38 AM -0800 2/10/98, WebWarrior3@InfoWar.Com wrote:
When you purchase or sell anything you enter into a contract with the other party, hence:UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE Article 21) In this Article unless the context otherwise requires "contract" and "agreement" are limited to those relating to the present or future sale of goods. "Contract for sale" includes both a present sale of goods and a contract to sell goods at a future time. A "sale" consists in the passing of title from the seller to the buyer for a price (Section 2-401). A "present sale" means a sale which is accomplished by the making of the contract. mer Protection Laws."
I suppose that your point is that the UCC somehow relates to your argument that filtering companies must supply customers with their filtering criteria? This is a serious distortion of the UCC, and, if applied, would mean: -- a chip company would have to provide the internal workings of chips sold, else they would be violating the disclosure laws -- a restaurant critic (analagous to a net.nanny filter, essentially) would have to provide access to his selection criteria -- the editor of any magazine or newspaper would have to explain his reasons for reporting some stories and not others, for including some editorial remarks and not others, and so on. My point about "absent a contract" is that sometimes there _are_ arrangements to supply internal workings of chips, restaurant selection criteria, etc. If there are such arrangements, then a customer can sue to get performance. But absent such prearrangements, a customer cannot generally demand information on how products were built, on what went into them, and so on. A customer of Cyber Sitter or Net Nanny is free to ask the companies involved what their criteria are, just as in the above cases he may ask the companies for more details. But if these companies decline to give trade secret information, or information they choose for whatever reason to keep to themselves, there is no recourse. Except in a few cases (wrongly, I believe) involving food and drug products, under FDA rules. Importantly, there are absolutely no such requirements for labelling of "speech," or editorial decisions, which is precisely the service being provided by Cyber Sitter and Net Nanny types of services. I believe any attempts to force, through law, the disclosure of editorial selection criteria would quickly be struck down by the courts as a violation of the First Amendment. (Except in the usual cases involving recommendations about drugs, health benefits, etc. And, no, I don't believe "psychological health" could be a justifiable reason for the courts to accept laws forcing editors to disclose their selection criteria.) Face it, Cyber Sitter is saying "We think these are sites your child can visit. " Forcing them to disclose their criteria--or even forcing them to list all sites they disapprove of--is an infringement on their editorial rights. (And please don't anybody cite "commerce" as a justification...it hasn't been a justification to regulate the speech of newspapers, publishers, or other commercial ventures....) --Tim May Just Say No to "Big Brother Inside" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^3,021,377 | black markets, collapse of governments.