🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <EMCGUIRE.92Nov11161022@fuller.intellection.com>, emcguire@intellection.com (Ed McGuire) writes:
> In article <1992Nov10.074320.5826@ais.com> bruce@ais.com (Bruce C. Wright) writes:
> 
>    As for the original topic, given the current laws in the US it's
>    probably only a matter of time until one site or another on the
>    alt.net gets into some trouble over copyrighted or `pornographic'
>    material, especially if the sysadmin doesn't make any effort at all
>    to remove such questionable material. [...]
>    Ignoring the potential for problems would likely _not_ be sufficient).
> 
> Telephone companies are not required to listen in on conversations and
> disconnecting circuits which are carrying illegal ones.  In fact they
> are prohibited from monitoring conversations, with few exceptions.
> Why should that be any different for me?

"`If the law supposes that' said Mr. Bumble ... `the law is a ass, a
idiot'" -- Charles Dickens.

_Personally_ I don't disagree with you.  But that's not the attitude of
many in law enforcement.  Legally, neither usenet nor any particular
site has the same status as the telephone company.  And I'm not even
sure we'd want it;  that would mean having to answer to PUC's (Public
Utility Commission) and so forth.

There are many situations in US law where _possession_ of something,
even unknowingly, is considered to be presumptive evidence of trafficing
in it.  Child pornography is one of them.  So are drugs or large amounts
of money (presumed to be evidence of drug dealings).  If I take a friend
out on my boat, and he happens to have some marijuana in his pocket that
I don't know about, _my_ boat can be confiscated because I'm considered
to be trafficing in marijuana.  Likewise, computer hardware can be
confiscated if various evidence of criminal activity is found on it,
even if it was not known or approved of by the hardware's owners.

I'm not arguing that this is fair or just or right -- in fact in most
cases I think it's not.  I'm simply saying that it IS, and that it's one
of the parameters we have to work within to avoid trouble with the cops.

Bruce C. Wright