Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!cbnews!wbt
From: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Net.Porn ?
Keywords: porn, underage, lawsuit
Message-ID: <1501@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Oct 88 13:40:33 GMT
References: <1278@cbnews.ATT.COM> <509@optilink.UUCP> <1957@spdcc.COM> <15135@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <556@optilink.UUCP> <5532@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <15229@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker)
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 39

In article <15229@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> gsmith@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gene W. Smith) writes:
>In article <5532@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>, skyler@ecsvax (Patricia Roberts) writes:
>
>>And it's worth while to keep in mind that freedom of speech for political
>>speech is not an absolute right.
>
>  We might recall in this connection the public apology for a
>"let's assassinate X if the election turns out in such and such a
>way" posting. I think this is political speech, and protected by
>the first amendment. Evidently, the Secret Service held another
>view. Clayton Cramer may wish to ponder the significance of this
>for the net.

Suggesting "let's assassinate X" isn't political speech, it's criminal.
It can be considered conspiracy (with other Usenetters), as well as an
attempt to overthrow the government by force.  Probably a couple of
other crimes, as well.

People, please don't dump on Mr. Cramer for his reference to soc.motss. *I*
started that reference with my original "net.porn ?" posting. I mentioned
soc.motss *not* because I considered it pornographic, but because I
felt that certain elements of our society would be feel threatened by
the idea of their children reading that group. I suppose I could have 
included talk.abortion, talk.bizarre, and talk.politics.misc, but the
actual newsgroups were *not* the issue, just the concept of Usenet 
sites being subject to legal action on these grounds.

My apologies if my reference to soc.motss has offended anyone; it
was not my intent to do so. Mr. Cramer has said nothing (in *this*
subject thread, at least) to warrant any hostility. He merely
repeated my mention of this group.


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Bill Thacker						cbosgd!cbema!wbt
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