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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!cca!ima!pbear!peterb
From: peterb@pbear.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Stargate, Usenet, Libel
Message-ID: <3@pbear.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Jan-85 05:06:12 EST
Article-I.D.: pbear.3
Posted: Wed Jan 16 05:06:12 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Jan-85 10:35:57 EST
Lines: 52
Nf-ID: #N:pbear:8900001:000:2280
Nf-From: pbear!peterb    Jan 14 14:45:00 1985


	OK turkeys, I have had it!

	IF you don't like this flame about the censorship of the net,
Stargate, etc, skip it now!


	I don't think that bitchin' and moaning about the censorship aspects
and possibilities is gonna change anything. So stop with the drivel about
it. Also, If you don't like the way that the net is run, tough! It is quite
widespread and is quite useful to a lot of people. So on with the meat of
the flame.

	There is a solution to a lot of the issues that people have been
throwing around about what to do about lawsuits, stargate, etc.

	First, If a site or network is worried about being sued for libel,
I believe that the only people that should be held accountable are:
The original author, The system administrator for letting it out of his
domain, but NOT THE NETWORK! If a system admin keeps an eye on what goes
out, then he don't hafta' worry about bein' thrown in no'a slamma' for
libel!.

	Secondly, if stargate is so worried about security of transmission,
Then why not just encrypt the stuff on the way up and decrypt it on the way
down. Use the encryption stuff in UNIX(tm). It works quite well. It may be
slow, but if you encrypt the source and send that by uucp over the
satellite, who is going to be able to decrypt it wothout the keys. Also you
can rotate keys at given times so that the possibility of decoding the
transmission is rather low to non-existant.

	Thirdly, if stargate is worried about libel, they can screen stuff
going up, and defer the stuff that is too hot to handle over to land lines.
I don't see the problem. Yet have I heard of a person being held responsible
for acting as a courier of libelous information (i.e. sys admin, newspaper
seller, distributor, etc.) NOTICE, I did not say ORIGINATOR. So I don't see
any way that the network can be held libel for information that it
re-transmits (i.e. mail pass-through, news, etc) over phone lines or
mu-wave, or stargate.

	So decide what you wanna' do and do it, just don't sit here and
quiver over the words of possible libel lawsuit.


						Peter Barada
						...!ima!pbear!peterb

	["Hey if they haven't done it yet, i don't think their gonna..."]

	I welcome any and all responses, either by mail or by flame.
	["I like the meat of my flame medium rare Thank You."]