Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: Canceling someone else's article Message-ID: <1991Jun1.022548.28381@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 1 Jun 91 02:25:48 GMT References: <1991May29.222406.26060@herald.usask.ca> <48330@bcsaic.UUCP> Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 87 In article <48330@bcsaic.UUCP> snicoud@Boeing.com (Stephen L Nicoud) writes: In article <1991May29.222406.26060@herald.usask.ca> lowey@herald.usask.ca (Kevin Lowey) writes: >> If anyone has a RIGHT here, it is the right of >> the owner of a computer to control how his >> computer is used. Its exactly the same as the bus >> driver who has the right to kick anyone off the >> bus if they are causing a problem. claiming that >> the USERS have rights to get electronic mail, no >> matter how badly they act, is similar to saying >> that bus riders have the right to steal the bus, >> and use it to rob a bank. If someone is trying to >> use MY equipment in a way *I* consider is >> improper, then *I* have every right to kick those >> people off *MY* computer. > And how about the bus driver/owner who makes black > people sit in the back of the bus. Clearly it is > not *always* up to the owner's notion of what is > "improper". You cannot restrict the activities > based upon sex, race, religion, creed, etc... Flawed analogy; a city bus is a public accomodation within the scope of the law, either operated or licensed to operate by government entities to whom the anti-discrimination statutes apply. These same statutes don't tell me that if I operate a church school bus I have to provide service to other than the, perhaps tuition paying, students. I have a complete right to operate a private BBS for the benefit and use, only, of the KKK, the John Birch Society, the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation League, the Freemasons, alt.activism participants (gag!) or people whose last name starts with "D" like mine. That is _not_ a public accomodation, it is not operated or licensed as one by a government entity. and the anti-discrimination laws should not be expected to apply. No more am I required (nor is USENet required) to _fund_ your _access_ to free speech on the BBS or the net, that corresponds to your right to be safe from _laws_ _abridging_ free speech in a medium either free or voluntarily funded by other participants and provided for you. Since USENet does not have, and probably does not want, the status of a common carrier, it is at least unclear that sites like The Well, Portal, Netcom, UUNET, UUPSI, etc. are under any obligation to provide equal access to service either, though frankly, it is a bit tough to discriminate before the fact against a person you are unlikely ever to see or know much about beyond the printed word, and loss of an account once granted would quite probably be based on unprotected behavior (non-payment of subscription fees, posting of unlawful material, being a complete pain in the ass and disrupting operations for other users, etc.), not on personal characteristics subject to anti-discrimination law coverage, in any case. This means if "we" don't like you enough to toss you off the net and pull the plug on your feed, you have no _legal_ recourse; your only recourse is to correct the behavior problems that elicited such a severe response enough to gull some sucker into providing you a feed again, at probable risk to his own feed, since the net is rather long on memory and short on forgiveness. Similarly for a cancelled account; you have to find a new site that will give you one, you have no inherent right, and should have no expectation, to get the old one back by means of any legal process. Compare it to the case of newspapers, which are in no way obliged to publish your obscene and abusive letter to the editor (though if you shop around, one may), although the law is pretty strict in allowing you to fund your _own_ newspaper in which you can rave, within the limits of the libel laws, to your heart's content. Kent, the man from xanth.