Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!brad From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Database Regulation (was Re: Post Office plans.) Message-ID: <1990Dec19.065012.1634@looking.on.ca> Date: 19 Dec 90 06:50:12 GMT References: <5308@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd. Lines: 20 Well, it's a nice analogy, but if I were a supreme court justice, and I listened to the EFF when it told me that electronic publishers were real publishers, then if somebody presented me with a law that said electronic publishers could not publish certain types of non-private information (such as your name, address, etc.) then I would strike down that law as a violation of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press. The government shalt not tell publishers what they can and can't publish. (Except, it seems, if it's obscene in some states, or violates national security.) Citizens have redress if material published about them is false, but that's not a prohibition on publication, only a requirement that publishers be responsible for what they publish. And there is no redress on true material. I do not propose changing the 1st amendment in order to stop database publishers. They (we) are the press as much as the New York Times. -- Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473