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From: fair@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Erik E. Fair)
Newsgroups: news.stargate
Subject: Re: Stargate bullshit
Message-ID: <17972@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Mon, 23-Mar-87 04:30:32 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.17972
Posted: Mon Mar 23 04:30:32 1987
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There are two kinds of big beasts in communication law: broadcasters
(e.g. commercial radio & TV stations) and common carriers (e.g. the
Telephone Company). Broadcasters are legally liable for the material
that they broadcast (i.e. libelous utterances, copyrighted material,
and stuff determined to be "offensive to the standards of the
community"). Common carriers are not legally liable for anything they
carry.

The USENIX Association commissioned legal research into the question:

	What is USENET in the eyes of communication law?

The answer was presented by Susan Nycum of Bartlett, Ely, Gaston & Snow
at the Dallas USENIX Conference in January 1985. In essence, the
answer is that USENET is unprecedented in the law, and so we don't know.
Right now, we sit in legal limbo land, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The question at the crux of John Gilmore's posting is

	Can Stargate qualify for common carrier status under the law,
	and therefore not be liable for the content of the information
	that they carry?

USENET uses common carriers to achieve the effect of a broadcaster, but
Stargate is real live satellite broadcast, hitting the entire
continental U.S. from a point 22,000 miles up, so Lauren Weinstein
(doubtless in consultation with others) decided early on that Stargate
was a broadcaster under the law, and therefore subject to the legal
restrictions that broadcasters operate under. Which resulted in the
statement, from nearly day one of the project, that Stargate would only
be able to carry USENET's moderated groups (or material from the
umoderated groups that got passed through a Stargate moderator).

So what we really end up with is

	How can we change Stargate so that it can qualify for common
	carrier status under the law?

The answer to this question may be that it is not possible, or that
we'd have to change Stargate too much to be useful to us. However,
that question is one for a lawyer, which I'm not.

	Erik E. Fair	ucbvax!fair	fair@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu