From Current Underground Digest Volume 5 : Issue 70. CuD FTP sites appended below. A paper by jmbell@DARMOK.WIN.NET(Jonathan Bell) on BBS operator & user rights. Somewhat speculative: points out existing legal

framework is woefully inadequate to deal with this `fundamentally new category' combining `the mass communications functions of publisher, distributor, broadcaster, advertiser and utility rolled into one'. (imagine the revolutions of the telephone, television, printing press combined -- that's one of my analogies)

It may seem shocking for [BBS] users today to learn that more than ever they are responsible for what they write and what they distribute.

he has it backwards -- now, *less* than ever (with things like cyberspatial anonymity). I guess he's got a point though.

The media lessons of copyright, privacy and defamation still are being taught on the networks today. They will continue as more people log on to the networks at hand, spreading their personage electronically.

actually, I think societal attitudes on `libel' `slander' and `defamation' and `sedition' (wink wink) are going to be radically transformed over the next few decades. 1) a mere posting alone is meaningless, and people will begin to understand that offense is in the eye of the beholder. if there is no tracable author there can be no `responsibility' and no one should overreact as if there is. 2) overreaction will decrease. in fact I see networks as sort of a automatic PC (policitically correct) countering device. People that are incredibly sensitive about sexist language or whatever the current fashionable academic term is will tend to get flamed into oblivion. Likewise people that overreact to anonymous spew. Likewise, however, people that are prejudiced get nailed into a more moderate consensus too. Rough humans will get to be increasingly polished by the torrential downpour of cyberspace. also, concepts of `copyright' will be radically transformed. the situation will be such that the `netiquette' will evolve where authors are required to include hypertext *pointers* to actual works, rather than copying the work itself. In this way many diverse problems (such as automatic updating, handling fee charging, etc.) are localized to the correct location (the author himself). However, I also foresee a great deal of future turmoil and turbulence on all these topics. We will probably reach a crescendo of outcry about the time the first unrestricted commercial networks appear, say, mid-to-late 90s. ===cut=here== Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1993 18:28:32 From: jmbell@DARMOK.WIN.NET(Jonathan Bell) Subject: File 3--Re: A Class Like None Other [revised] ((MODERATORS' NOTE: For parsimony, we reproduce here only the first and last two paragraphs of Johnathan Bell's paper, which summarize his central themes. His points are well-argued, and the copious footnotes should be of value to scholars. The entire paper can be obtained from the CuD ftp archives. We recommend it)). A CLASS LIKE NONE OTHER: HOW THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA CLASSIFICATIONS FAIL TO PROTECT IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER by Jonathan Bell August 4, 1993 Mass Communications Law and Ethics Dwight Teeter - Summer 1993 Imagine the mass communications functions of publisher, distributor, broadcaster, advertiser and utility rolled into one and you might find that the beast before you is being operated out of your own home -- or at least that of a friend or neighbor. The computer bulletin board (BBS) offers a variety of services to its users: shopping, electronic mail, public discussion of hot topics, free software, free advice, news. All that may sound idealistic but it is here. The only thing endangering BBS' and their system operators' (sysops') ability to run them is a legal system unclear and uneducated about the First Amendment held dearly by those who keep them going, whether they are the users or the operators. Exactly where BBS' stand in the legal structure has not been definitively decided by anyone. Getting sysops to agree has yet to be accomplished, users see things differently and lawyers and government often have views widely divergent from the thoughts of the other two. The simple fact that the proper status of bulletin boards has yet to be answered reasonably opens up the dire need for a new media classification system. No one sees eye to eye, and assurances that the right thing will always be done do not work. ************************* It may seem shocking for users today to learn that more than ever they are responsible for what they write and what they distribute. The ability to have your voice heard is unprecedented but so is the capability to harm. The media lessons of copyright, privacy and defamation still are being taught on the networks today. They will continue as more people log on to the networks at hand, spreading their personage electronically. Education can answer many of the problems facing the electronic world today. But no puzzles are solvable until computer information systems and bulletin boards are granted the highest degree of First Amendment rights and freedom from liability necessary to keep the waves of public exchange coming throughout the future. ------------------------------ ANONYMOUS FTP SITES: UNITED STATES: ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/cud etext.archive.umich.edu (141.211.164.18) in /pub/CuD/cud halcyon.com( 202.135.191.2) in /pub/mirror/cud aql.gatech.edu (128.61.10.53) in /pub/eff/cud AUSTRALIA: ftp.ee.mu.oz.au (128.250.77.2) in /pub/text/CuD. EUROPE: nic.funet.fi in pub/doc/cud. (Finland) ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud (United Kingdom)