[11715] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: In the matter of advertisements and lawsuits
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Glenn S. Tenney)
Fri Apr 15 08:54:53 1994
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 02:28:35 -0800
To: Miles R Fidelman <fidelman@civicnet.org>,
Everyone Else Lurking on Com-Priv <com-priv@psi.com>,
Risks in computing <RISKS@csl.sri.com>,
Ethics in Computing <ETHICS-L@vm.gmd.de>
From: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
At 1:05 PM 4/14/94 -0400, Miles R Fidelman wrote:
>On Thu, 14 Apr 1994, Paul Robinson wrote:
>> some organization had posted a message dealing with the issue
>> of Green Cards and Immigration to several lists, which in essence could
>> have been considered an advertisement.
>
> in short,
>throwing someone off a system for what they said could well open that
>provider up to lots of liability
It was much more than "several" lists. The San Jose Mercury News listed it
as 5,000 newsgroups and mailing lists (if I recall the number correctly).
And it *WAS* clearly an advertisement for their law firm.
The news report also mentioned something about the husband and wife team
who posted this having gotten into some trouble doing the same thing a
month or two ago using a different Internet provider.
Kicking anyone off for such postings has nothing to do with the CONTENTS of
the postings. It is strictly on the form and method used, and the
customer's behavior DOES have a direct affect on the business. (see below)
>ii. isn't it simpler to let the offender get barraged by 10,000 flames
>and thus be unable to use their email box for anyting for months?
But many of us also sent email to the Internet provider.
Either way, though, the Internet provider was also faced with a system
overload problem (ie. tens of thousands of flaming emails to either the
administrators or the user in questions equates to system load problems and
therefore revenue losses) solely because of the improper behavior of a
client.
I'd say that instead of the user suing the provider, the provider should
sue the user for the losses caused by their actions.
---
Glenn Tenney
tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
(415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
