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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!ulysses!princeton!eosp1!robison
From: robison@eosp1.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: Racist jokes - hate propaganda legislation in Canada
Message-ID: <288@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Nov-83 01:16:02 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.288
Posted: Sun Nov 13 01:16:02 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Nov-83 23:53:35 EST
References: <2646@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 36

I am sure that the interpretation given of the Canadian law is
incorrect.

(By the way, pls note: I am not a lawyer, and what follows is
NOT legal advice.)

First:
It is not "Canadians" who must observe this law; it is people under
the jurisdisction of canadian law, which certainly includes non-
Canadians living in Canada.

Second:
The apologies and comments that certain groups should not be offended,
taken in context with other net mail, may conceivably constitute a
defense that the offensive material is being presented to point out,
and alleviate, the hatred, as specified within the law.
(Don't count on this defense to work though!!)

Third:
If a legal action is taken on a piece of net mail, the questions
of jurisdiction and culpability would be very interesting.  WHERE did
the crime take place, if the netmail originated in the US and then
entered Canada?  Who committed the crime?  Is it the person who
enabled UNIX communications to bring the item into canada over the
net?  The system engineer on the entrypoint system who should have
censored the net news?  The author?

The point of this note is that if anyone is going to worry about this
sort of legal action, it is exactly the wrong people -- it is the
administrators who decide to shut down netgroups to avoid
responsibility of offending people, not the authors of the material.
Why did we bring this subject up in the first place, anyway???
				- Keremath,  care of:
				  Robison
			          decvax!ittvax!eosp1
				  or:   allegra!eosp1