Xref: utzoo talk.politics.misc:70918 comp.org.eff.talk:2572 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!stanford.edu!leland.Stanford.EDU!portia!stanton From: stanton@lurch.stanford.edu (Scott Stanton) Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Growing MJ (Advice sought) Message-ID: Date: 10 Jun 91 18:23:39 GMT References: <1991Jun2.091410.23785@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <20369@cs.utexas.edu> <16801@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1991Jun4.184604.27133@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <1991Jun7.102950.1658@elevia.UUCP> Sender: news@leland.Stanford.EDU (Mr News) Organization: Stanford University Lines: 33 In-Reply-To: alain@elevia.UUCP's message of 7 Jun 91 10:29:50 GMT In article <1991Jun7.102950.1658@elevia.UUCP> alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes: Interesting point that leads to the next questions: Why should there be a distinction between speech and the printed word? Isn't it an artificial split? Does it correspond to an objective difference? William "Alain" Simon UUCP: alain@elevia.UUCP The distinction is more between "press" and "speech". I think it originally was a valid distinction since the printed word had a much greater reach than the spoken word. Even today, the press often has a greater perceived validity than speech. But I'm not sure the distinction is as easy to make now that we have radio, tv, audio-visual recordings, and most recently, electronic mail and bulletin boards. Now that desktop publishing makes "press" just as easy as "speech", there may not be as much difference. One problem with trying to unify the two concepts, though, is that they are afforded different protections under the law now. Not being a lawyer, I don't know what all of the distinctions are, but I believe there is a higher standard of truth required of the press. It also gets particularly tricky when you start adding in copyright laws. If I copy your entire message without your prior permission, is that a copyright violation? It certainly isn't if it is considered to be speech, but it might well be under the printed word umbrella. -- --Scott Stanton (stanton@cs.stanford.edu) --