At 8:47 AM -0800 3/6/00, David Honig wrote:
>When everyone is a publisher, publishers lose rights?
>
>
>At 07:48 AM 3/6/00 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>>The forthcoming report:
>> http://www.politechbot.com/docs/unlawfulconduct.html
>
> Congress should consider
> approving a law to remove some
> privacy protections from
> journalists and publishers. "With
> the advent of the Internet and
> widespread computer use, almost
> any computer can be used to
> 'publish' material," says the draft
> document, which also
> recommends reduced privacy
> rights for cable modem users.
Congress cannot "remove privacy protections from journalists and
publishers" for obvious First Amendment reasons.
(There is no "privacy right," qua privacy. There are various rights
involving protection from random searches and seizures, freedom to write as
one wishes, and so on.)
Congress can attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution, and then garner the
support of the requisite number of states, but Congress as Congress cannot
abridge the First Amendment.
This is slam dunk First Amendment stuff. I'm surprised that even a report
likely written by some twentysomething staffers would get this so wrong.
--Tim May
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
