🚀 go-pugleaf

Richard writes:

> A BBS is not strictly analogous to a publisher's press; few publishers
> allow (much less encourage) anyone to come in off the street and run off
> a few tens or thousands of copies of something for free, or allow them 
> to insert unedited copy into the next edition!

I agree that the publisher analogy is weak, except in the case of true
electronically published collections, articles, and magazines.

> Nor is a BBS a common-carrier like the phone system: no knowledgable 
> user of a BBS has any expectation of privacy in using it.

In fact, new technology rarely fits neatly into old pigeon holes.  A BBS
is probably best viewed as a mix of old paradigms.  Most BBS's have two
major parts:  an upload/download library of public files, which may or
may not be reviewed by the system operator, and a mail system.

I submit that users of any electronic mail system do, in fact, have a
right to expect privacy, and that this portion of the BBS (or any other
e-mail network) should be considered a common carrier.

What paradigm do we use for the public-access files?  I suggest that the
very name of the beast gives us a good suggestion.  It is much like the
public bulletin boards found in offices, supermarkets, school buildings,
and so forth.  Anyone who can find a thumbtack can post a notice.  The
owner of the board may come around periodically and pull down old
notices or notices deemed to be in poor taste.  But the owner of the
board certainly should not be liable for the contents of the postings.

Bradley