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Ch6 Communication Paradigms

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U.S. ConstitutionCongress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ... . -First Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath oraffirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or thingsto be seized. -Fourth Amendment

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Internet

Anybody can publish. Results in freedom of the press meaning something to individuals and not just to the big publishing companies.

First Amendment spirit and intent (to protect our freedom to say what we wish) not strictly followed for the "new" technologies.

First Amendment to protect offensive and/or controversial speech and ideas. (Don't need protection for things everyone agrees on)

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Historical

Communications technologies have been divided into three categories.

Print media (newspapers, books, magazines...)

Broadcast (television, radio).

Common Carriers (telephone, telegraph, and the postal system).

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Not Equal Under the Law

Cable TV found to have more First Amendment protection than TV but less than Print, by the Supreme Court.

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Print Media vs. Broadcast

Both provide news and entertainment but broadcast industry highly regulated.

To get a broadcast license must meet government standards of merit.

Content for broadcast under control with pressures to make it conform.

There are words that can be used in print but not said on the radio.

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Why More Restrictions?

Controls originally based on scarcity of frequencies.

That argument has pretty much disappeared cable and satellites.

Now the justification for restrictions is based on the need to prevent children from being exposed to objectionable material.

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Print media vs. Common Carriers

Provide medium not content. Often must provide "universal access".

Prohibited from controlling the content of material that goes through the system.

*** Have no responsibility for content.***

Big question now is if an Internet server (AOL etc.) is a common carrier or a publisher.

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Libel

Under libel law, a person can be sued for damages for saying something in print, or in another medialike television, about another person, business, or organization that is false and defamatory.

If everyone is a publisher on the Internet then just like the New York Times we can be sued.

Libraries and bookstores can't be sued because it has been deemed unreasonable that they should have to read everything they sell.

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Pornography on the Internet

Time magazine only found 900,000 sexually explicit pictures when they developed an article on the subject.

Note that discussion of sexual activity, even unusual or illegal; is protected by the First Amendment.

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Concerns from the Past

Of interest is that when the new technology called an automobile started to catch on in this country there was a great deal of concern over what this new ability for dating couples to separate themselves from proper supervision would do to the morals of thiscountry.

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Miller vs. California

Material is obscene under the law (and not protected by the First Amendment) if

1) It depicts sexual acts which are specificallyprohibited by state law.

2) It depicts these acts in a patently offensive manner... that violates community standards.

3) It has no serious literary, artistic, social, political, or scientific value.

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Community?

A couple in California operated a computer BBSthat made sexually explicit images available to Its members. It was agreed that this would not be viewed as a crime in California so a postal inspector in Memphis working with a US attorney became a member and downloaded images. The California couple were then charged and convicted of distributing materials that violated local decency standards. Both received jail terms.

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Community?

July 21, 1999 Gulfport: A 65 year old man was arrested following a lead from San Bernardino investigators who had targeted pedophiles when the investigators posed as "sexual predators" in Internet chat rooms.

In California the charge would be a misdemeanor but in Mississippi, child exploitation is a felony. Conviction could result in 10-20 years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.

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Censor the Net?

FBI says bad folks doing bad things with Internet.

Protection for children.

Legal sanctions against service providers most effective way to control, but look at the side effects.

How do you control foreign sites? Do you want to?

CompuServe responded to a German request to shut off access to sites providing neo-Nazi info (against German law) and cut off access to more than 200 newsgroups.

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Oklahoma City Bombing

Following the bombing the Senate's terrorism and technology subcommittee met to look into bomb building instructions on the Internet.

They also found directions on how to build an ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb in the Encyclopedia Britannica, and in books in libraries and bookstores and in "Blasters Handbook" published by the Agriculture Department.

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Bio-terror “Cookbook”

Months into an expanded war on bio-terrorism, the government is still making available to the public hundreds of formerly secret documents that tell how to turn dangerous germs into deadly weapons. For $15 one can purchase a 57page report that gives details on a pilot factory for producing dried germs in powder form, designed to lodge in human lungs. These documents were produced between 1943 and 1969.

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Online Sexist, Racist, and Harassing Speech

A Santa Rosa Junior College instructor set up a computer system with almost 200 discussion groups for students. At the request of students he then set up a men-only and a woman-only discussion group. Those that signed up agreed to keep the content confidential. But...

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Online Sexist, Racist, and Harassing Speech (Cont.)

Complaint filed with U.S. Dept of Education Office for Civil Rights. Professor put on administrative leave. Awards of $15,000 made to all who complained. Ruling was that federal law banning sexual discrimination had been violated. Ruled "created hostile education environment" that constituted sexual harassment.

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2/2/99 Judge Blocks Net Porn Law

The Child Online Protection Act which was an attempt to address problems in lawmakers first anti-porn Net law, the Communications Decency Act, (overturned by the Supreme Court in June of 1997) was blocked by federal judge Lowell Reed.

Reed said he sympathizes with parents who wish to protect kids from Internet porn, but that the Constitution needed to be protected.

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2/2/99 Judge Blocks Net Porn Law(Cont.)

In explaining his actions Judge Reed said"Indeed, perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if the First Amendment protections, which they with age will inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection."

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30 July 1999: Michigan Internet Crime Bill Violates First Amendment,

Commerce ClauseA Federal District Court Judge has issued an injunction to block a statute intended to protect children from online sexual predators. The judge's opinion said the law was so broadly worded that it would curb legitimate speech on line and would violate parents' rights to raise their children and teach them values without excessive governmentinterference.http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/cyber/articles/30michigan.html

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24 June 1999: ACLU Says MichiganLaw Hinders Free SpeechA newly minted Michigan law aimed at protecting children makes it a felony to transmit "sexually explicit matter" on-line to people under the age of 18. In addition to violating first amendment rights, the ACLU says that the Michigan law is in violation of a constitutional law "which prohibits states from regulating activity outside of their borders."http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,38362,00.html

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10/01 US Supreme Court Mulls High-Tech Child-Pornography Law

Key provisions of the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act were struck down by federal appeals court, which said the statute's language was too broad and vague. The law expanded earlier child-pornography prohibitions by outlawing images that "appear to be minors" engaged in sexual activities or that "convey the impression" that minors were portrayed - even if real children weren't involved. A ruling in the case, Reno vs. Free Speech Coalition, 00-795, is expected by mid-2002.

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1/18/02 China Institutes Strong Internet Content Regulations

New regulations in China require ISPs to screen e-mail for subversive political content and hold them responsible for website, chat-room and bulletin board content. In addition, software manufac-turers have to guarantee that their products do not contain backdoors.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49855,00.html

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Anonymity

Pen names. Pseudonyms

Remailing services let you send e-mail anonymously and to post messages to newsgroups anonymously.

A remailer in Finland had volume jump to 7000 messages a day shortly after he was discovered.

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Remailers

Fully anonymous remailer strips off return address and destroys it before forwarding mail. No replies possible.

Normal is to assign a code number in place of originator identification and then when replies include code to look up code and send message to originator.

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AnonymityGood/Bad?

Anonymity provides protection against retaliation and embarrassment. Victims of rape, people trying to kick illegal drug habits, and people seeking medical advice can benefit.

On the other side anonymity supports fraud, harassment, rumors, copyright violations, kiddy porn, and all sorts of criminal activities.

The fact that there are strong arguments for and against anonymity suggests that it should not be illegal.

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Another Viewpoint on AnonymityDavenport, David, “Viewpoint”, CACM, April 2002/Vol45.,

No. 4, pp33-35.

Anonymity, so the argument goes, ensures governments cannot spy on citizens and thus guarantees privacy and free speech.

The view is fundamentally mistaken; by allowing anonymous communication we actually risk an incremental breakdown ofthe fabric of our society. The price of freedom is not anonymity, but accountability.Without accountability we loose all recourse to the law and hence risk our very freedom.

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Another Viewpoint on AnonymityDavenport, David, “Viewpoint”, CACM, April 2002/Vol45,

No. 4, pp. 33-35.

In circumstances where people can be largely anonymous, and the threat of punishment is thus minimal, they find it easy to justify to themselves actions againstthose they perceive as outsiders or enemies.

Experience suggests that a society that relies solely on the goodwill and conscience of its citizens would be unlikely to succeed in assuring justice.

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Cryptography

Authors of a book on cryptography got permission to export their book but could not get permission to export disks containing the programs found in the book.

We do seem to treat paper documents differently from electronic ones.

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Spelling Scam

U.S. court closes down more than 5,500 Web sites: The government alleges that these sites with similar URLs to well-known Web pages were set up to trap Net surfers and subject them to ads for pornography and gambling. The scheme is especially harmful to children or employees who may put their jobs at risk when they inadvertently call up pornographic or gambling-related material, the FTC said.   http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/netscam011001.html