From: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 13:20:31 +0800
To: cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: Re: Webpage picketing (fwd)
Message-ID: <199706040442.XAA00428@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Hi,

Forwarded message:

> Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 23:57:47 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
> Subject: Re: Webpage picketing

> Pickets arise from a peculiar set of circumstances that arise in
> meatspace, including public streets. Sure, you can picket The Gap at the
> store up the block from my office on Connecticut Avenue. But try to wave
> those signs outside The Gap in the Pentagon City mall not far away, and
> you'll be chased off by the security guards. It's a private space;
> different rules apply.

Pickets arise from people getting pissed off about some aspect of their
economic life and using their right to free speech to express it.

Absolutely, but I can most definitely picket the mall and the store at that
point with complete impunity from the sidewalk. And please correct me if my
geometry/geography is wrong, but in order to get into the private parking
spot at the private mall you do have to drive off the public street ACROSS
the public sidewalk where all those picketers are standing. After all, if
the mall won't let me express my opinions then I have an economic right as
a consumer to express my displeasure and try to warn other consumers of the
danger. It is irrelevant to my goal as a economic consumer whether I picket
the store inside the mall or outside. What IS important is that I have legal
access to ALL the customers using that business(es).

> And I think that we should be very careful about calling the Net a public
> forum. Sure, places like Usenet resemble a public forum in some ways, but
> it's not the same.

But I am not calling the net a public forum. I am specificaly talking about
a special case that might arise if we are not aware of the consequences. In
short it is a statement that it MIGHT be possible to use publicly funded
network backbones to seriously impede communication using the system against
itself.

> I think Greg has it right: you want to forcibly intervene in a
> communication between two consenting parties. What you want is similar to
> the right to come into my home and prevent me from speaking freely to my
> friend or lover. 

Not at all, unless you are implying the same expectation of privacy on a
public street (or backbone) that you would get in your home (or intranet).
I am stating the status quo, the level of expectant privacy on a public
street (internet) is in no way nearly as comprehensive as in your home
(intranet). Should you doubt this, walk around your living room with the
blinds drawn butt-naked and then try that again in the middle of downtown
at 5pm. If you want to go to store A and it is covered in picketers, you
WILL hear and see them even if you don't want to. Their right to speech is
such that if you want to use that business you must submit to an exposure of
their views however brief. My thesis is that it may be possible to extend
this legaly supportable model to a backbone which derives some or all of its
income from public funds. This could be a BAD thing, is it and why?. If it
is acceptable use of publicly funded resources in meatspace why should
publicy funded resources in bitspace be exempted? No more, no less.

   _______________________________________________________________________
  |                                                                       |
  |            Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.              |
  |                                                                       |
  |                                     Slovenian Proverb                 |
  |                                                                       |
  |     Jim Choate                                 ravage@ssz.com         |
  |     The Armadillo Group                        www.ssz.com            |
  |     Austin, Texas, USA                         512-451-7087           |
  |_______________________________________________________________________|