Ch6 Communication Paradigms
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U.S. Constitution
Congress 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 or
affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or things
to 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 media
like 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 this
country.
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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 specifically
prohibited 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 BBS
that 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 57
page 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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: Michigan Internet Crime
Bill Violates First Amendment,
Commerce Clause
30 July 1999
A 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 government
interference.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/cyber/articles/30michigan.html
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ACLU Says Michigan
Law Hinders Free Speech
24 June 1999:
A 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 manufacturers 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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Anonymity
Good/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 Anonymity
Davenport, 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 of
the 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 Anonymity
Davenport, 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 against
those 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
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