From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 94 09:22:34 PDT
To: roy@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org (Roy M. Silvernail)
Subject: Electronic press ?=? Paper press
In-Reply-To: <940701.070436.2K1.rusnews.w165w@sendai.cybrspc.mn.org>
Message-ID: <199407011622.JAA24851@netcom4.netcom.com>
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Roy M. Silvernail wrote:

(quoting Duncan Frissell)

> > A BBS is a publication.  The
> > 1st Amendment was specifically written to outlaw the British licensing of 
> > publications.  No risk.
> 
> Until some case law comes about that recognizes this, It Just Ain't So.
> Right now, electronic publishing isn't recognized by the courts as
> publishing (because we don't kill trees, I suppose).

Not so.

Writers who use computers, journalists who write directly to
electronic distribution, etc., are just as protected against
censorship or prior restraint as paper-oriented journalists are.

Any law which required, for example, writers like us to submit their
writings to some government censorship agency would of course be
struck down immediately.

(Note: "Wartime" situations may be different, which is why I fear the
term "War" in "War on Drugs," "War on Money Launderers," and "War on
Barny Bashers.")

--Tim May


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