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From: jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: net.news,net.politics,net.legal
Subject: Re: Towards making hosts and their admin free from a criminal offence
Message-ID: <230@epimass.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-May-86 14:10:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: epimass.230
Posted: Wed May 21 14:10:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 24-May-86 03:34:21 EDT
References: <611@bu-cs.UUCP> <164@comp.lancs.ac.uk> <20663@styx.UUCP> <1259@mulga.OZ> <2026@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.UUCP (Joe Buck)
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Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
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Xref: linus net.news:4062 net.politics:15458 net.legal:3154

In article <2026@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU> jbs@mit-eddie.UUCP (Jeff Siegal) writes:
>Usenet, as it exists, is a medium for the free exchange of ideas.  If
>this is not compatible with the laws of another country, it should not
>be distributed there.  Neither individual posters (in other countries)
>nor Usenet in general (whatever that means) are in violation of any
>foreign law for publishing these ideas.

The USA isn't as free as you think, Jeff, and your posting doesn't
address the problem.

According to your definition, importing Usenet traffic into the US is
illegal as well, because a European poster might post a message that
is considered legal there but is considered pornography in the US.
In some areas the US is less free than, say, Denmark for example.

Basically there are four classes of laws that might make a Usenet
message illegal in some country (I'm speaking here of Western-style
democracies):

1) Libel or slander.
	As I understand this, the US has a narrower definition of
	libel than most countries.  Just the same, am I as a system
	administrator in trouble if you smear someone?

2) Obscenity/pornography.
	Did you know that it's illegal to use four-letter words over
	the phone in the US?  This is never enforced unless someone
	complains, but you may be violating the law.  Similarly, Sen.
	Paul Trible wants to pass an absolutely ridiculous law
	restricting computer bbds, that, if passed and enforced,
	would put net.singles and net.motts out of business and would
	make us moderate everything.

3) Racism.
	The US had a lot to do with imposing this kind of law on
	Europe and Japan at the end of WWII.  Some of these laws were
	(and are) excessive, but millions of dead Jews are quite an
	incentive to make sure the Nazis don't rise again.  A couple
	of American neo-nazis had a lot to do with keeping net.politics
	out of Europe.

4) Violation of privacy.
	Some countries have passed laws protecting the privacy of
	personal data in computer data bases.  These might be
	construed as applying to Usenet if someone in one of these
	countries posted a message containing personal information
	about someone else in violation of that person's wishes.

I hope this clarifies your understanding of some of the issues.
-- 
- Joe Buck 	{ihnp4!pesnta,oliveb,csi}!epimass!jbuck
  Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, California
  Better living through entropy!