🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <359a5c72.403753@news.pathcom.com>,
Jim Butterfield <fjb@torfree.net> wrote:
|dmytrik@syntac.net (Dmytri Kleiner) wrote:
|
|
|>Simply restating the laws is fine, however unnecessary, but saying
|>that *WE* will take *ACTION* and *DISCIPLINE* users based on our own
|>*INTERPRETATION* of the laws is thuggery, no better than a lynch mob.
|
|There may be further questions involved.
|
|As a hypothetical example (but one I don't think is too far fetched):
|Suppose a posting appears in a TFN newsgroup saying something like "A
|doctor who performs abortions lives at 1234 Anywhere Street .. I think
|somebody with a rifle should visit him/her".  The poster may be
|readily identifiable, or may not.  The posting may originate from
|within the TFN, or not.
|
|Now consider:  this posting is drawn to the attention of the TFN
|Executive and Board of Directors, who decide to let it sit there until
|"a judge rules on the matter".  Perhaps they tell the complainant that
|it's nothing to do with the TFN, and if such person is concerned he
|should go to the police; meanwhile, the message will be left in place.
|And should the posting appear to have originated from a TFN member,
|that member wouldn't even be asked about it.


	It's my understanding that in very recent events
	I read of an incident where people reported just
	such a verbal utterance to the police, ant they
	answered that such statements were not illegal.
	The results were unfortunate, yet the police were
	not indicted.


|It's clear that other ISPs in the Toronto area would deep-six such a
|posting FAST.  But at least some directors seem to be saying that it
|would be an abrogation of free speech to do _anything_.


	Get this through your head: we are NOT an ISP.
	We do not have the same sense of responsibilities
	at all.


|Meanwhile, an MD living at 1234 Anywhere Street is shot.  Do the
|directors of the TFN _really_ believe that no liability would accrue
|to them?


	It's your movie, Mr. Zanuck; what do you say?


|The directors are free to call their own strategy.  But I trust they
|will not do so in a manner that will cause themselves personal
|liability, or bring the TFN into disrepute.


	That's MISTER smarm to you, fella.  Jim, you are
	in the wrong business, you should be working for
	politicians so that your penchant for the spin
	has something like relevance.  Here, people try
	to talk straight without the bullshit wallpaper.
	You're setting a bad example.


-- 
  ,u,	 Bruce Becker		Toronto, Ontario	1 416 699 1868
a /i/	 Internet: bdb@gts.org	Uucp: ...!gts!bdb
 `\o\-e	 "...and then we had to reformat the Ontario government
 _< /_	 		'cos it had a boot-camp virus"		- Gully Foyle