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Dear Dale,<br><br>
Thank you for your comments. It seems to me that your analogy is
imperfect on two counts. The first is the 'dangerous speech' analogy.
Leaving aside the issue of whether targeted speech is more or less likely
to cause cause injury than causing a panic, the fact remains that taking
down the servers in no way resembles cordoning off the theatre to keep
the culprit from escaping. It also does not prevent the escape of any
potential witnesses. This is a virtual space, remember? All it does is to
create the "impression of repression" which, I would submit, is
a pretty loud cry of "fire!"<br><br>
Second, the incendiary impression given by the fact that the 'victims'
were Republican delegates to a convention that has long since finished is
multiplied by the Sinclair Broadcast Group's intention to pre-empt 60
local stations for what is by all accounts a piece of anti-Kerry
propoganda on the eve of the election. As one of the US FCC Commissioners
puts it:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>FCC
COMMISSIONER COPPS CRITICIZES SINCLAIR CORPORATE DECISION TO PREEMPT
LOCAL STATIONS FOR POLITICAL BROADCAST</b></font></h1><font size=2><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>Commissioner Michael J.
Copps reacted to reports that Sinclair Broadcast Group will preempt more
than 60 local stations across the country to air an overtly political
program in the days prior to the Presidential election.<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2>Copps stated:
“This is an abuse of the public trust. And it is proof positive of
media consolidation run amok when one owner can use the public airwaves
to blanket the country with its political ideology -- whether liberal or
conservative. Some will undoubtedly question if this is appropriate
stewardship of the public airwaves. This is the same corporation
that refused to air Nightline’s reading of our war dead in Iraq. It
is the same corporation that short-shrifts local communities and local
jobs by distance-casting news and weather from hundreds of miles
away. It is a sad fact that the explicit public interest
protections we once had to ensure balance continue to be weakened by the
Federal Communications Commission while it allows media conglomerates to
get even bigger. Sinclair, and the FCC, are taking us down a
dangerous road.” </font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF">
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2><br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#0000FF"><a href="http://www.fcc.gov">www.fcc.gov</a></font></blockquote><br>
So, while I applaud your clever argument, it seems to miss the main point
of the group's concerns - as I understand them. <br><br>
Cheers,<br><br>
Jonathan<br><br>
At 04:30 15/10/2004, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hello:<br><br>
I have not posted before; I have been an observer. I am coming from
the view point of a technician (a programmer, DBA, UNIX admin,
...), who is now in law school, and I am a Citizen of the State
of California in America.<br><br>
As I understand it, the indymedia servers were removed because they
contained information targeted at a group of individuals, the delegates
of the Republican National Convention. And, this information was
used to harass people who were trying to go about the business of the
Republican Party.<br><br>
I concur if that is the case...<br><br>
Say someone was to yell; "Fire!" in the middle of a theater,
and as a result, there were people hurt. Further suppose the person
was still in the general area. The police, in an attempt to find
the individual for justice, cordoned off the place.<br><br>
The police did not want to take the chance that the individual's friends
would let the friend go (due to a knowledge that the were police coming),
so the police did not notify anyone. The law sealed off the area
and went to looking and opened the area back up after that was
done.<br><br>
Does that make sense?<br><br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br><br>
<br>
Dale Chalfant<br><br>
I posted a bit more detail here if anyone may be interested:<br>
<a href="http://cyb2law.blogspot.com/" eudora="autourl">http://cyb2law.blogspot.com</a><br><br>
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