online reports

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Hi all

Courtesy of a generous contact, a few reports some people who have
time to read will find interesting!

Articles on filtering in libraries, an online crime survey in the
USA, Defamation & Discourse In Cyberspace, and on free speech and
anti-abortion threats.

Cheers
David

Filth, Filtering, And The First Amendment: Ruminations On Public
Libraries' Use Of Internet Filtering Software 

     By Bernard W. Bell.
Traditionally, whenever the government has sought to regulate speech,
analysis of its action focused on conventional issues, such as the
type of forum involved, whether the government acted in a regulatory
or a proprietary role, and whether the regulation could be defined as
a prior restraint. With the advent of the Internet and the
opportunity for the widespread dissemination of viewpoints, however,
new issues have arisen. This Article focuses on the complex questions
public libraries face when filtering material, usually of a sexually
explicit nature, from the public using filtering software. This
Article contends that public libraries require a unique analysis
because they represent the government by facilitating access to
speech. With this in mind, this Article discusses several arguments
for and against the use of filtering software, and concludes that
public libraries should be able to employ such tools, but, at the
same time, meet certain requirements in their implementation.

See http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v53no2.html or
http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v53/no2/bell.pdf for the report


Fear of Online Crime (Pew Internet Tracking Report)
Americans are deeply worried about criminal activity on the Internet,
and their revulsion at child pornography is by far their biggest
fear. Some 92% of Americans say they are concerned about child
pornography on the Internet and 50% of Americans cite child porn as
the single most heinous crime that takes place online. Americans
support FBI interception of criminal suspects' email and new laws to
protect online privacy.

See http://63.210.24.35/reports/toc.asp?Report=32 or
http://63.210.24.35/reports/pdfs/PIP_Fear_of_crime.pdf


Judgment on "Nuremberg": An Analysis of Free Speech and Anti-Abortion
Threats Made on the Internet by Jason Schlosberg, see
http://www.bu.edu/law/scitech/volume7/Schlosberg.pdf

Silencing John Doe: Defamation & Discourse In Cyberspace
ABSTRACT
John Doe has become a popular defamation defendant as corporations
and their officers bring defamation suits for statements made about
them in Internet discussion fora. These new suits are not even
arguably about recovering money damages but instead are brought for
symbolic reasons -- some worthy, some not so worthy. If the only
consequence of these suits were that Internet users were held
accountable for their speech, the suits would be an unalloyed good.
However, these suits threaten to suppress legitimate criticism along
with intentional and reckless falsehoods, and existing First
Amendment law doctrines are not responsive to the threat these suits
pose to Internet discourse. Although the constitutional privilege for
opinion holds promise as a solution to this problem, the Supreme
Court's jurisprudence provides little assurance that the privilege
can protect the "robust, uninhibited, and wide-open nature" of
Internet discourse without giving Internet speakers free license to
harm the reputation of others. Therefore, this Article attempts to
articulate a theory that justifies protecting John Doe and suggests
the steps courts should take to adapt the existing opinion privilege
to the unique context of cyberspace.

=====
David Goldstein
2/3 Belmont Ave, Glen Iris 3146, Australia
email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
phone: +61 3 9885 0601 (home)
       +61 418 228 605 (mobile)

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