From: shab...@vtw.org (Shabbir J. Safdar)
Subject: BillWatch #62: New publication: CASEWATCH http://www.vtwctr.org/
Date: 1996/10/22
Message-ID: <54hpso$hm5@panix3.panix.com>
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distribution: world
sender: shab...@panix.com
organization: Voters Telecommunications Watch (email v...@vtw.org)
newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,comp.org.cpsr.talk,alt.wired,alt.politics.datahighway,
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alt.union.natl-writers
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VTW BillWatch #62
VTW BillWatch: A newsletter tracking US Federal legislation
affecting civil liberties. BillWatch is published about every
week as long as Congress is in session. (Congress is out of session)
BillWatch is produced and published by the
Voters Telecommunications Watch (v...@vtw.org)
Issue #62, Date: Tue Oct 22 02:32:41 EDT 1996
Do not remove this banner. See distribution instructions at the end.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
New feature at VTW: CaseWatch
About VTW Center's CaseWatch
Subscription Information and donation policy (unchanged 2/18/96)
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INTRODUCTION BY SHABBIR J. SAFDAR
I'm still not quite sure how we've done this, but I'm proud to say that
we still don't have any money and we're about to announce a brand new
Web publication. Today, our nonprofit organization, the VTW Center
for Internet Education, unveils a new publication dedicated to following
important legal disputes that affect the net.
Our new publication, CaseWatch (http://www.vtwctr.org/casewatch/),
focuses on the evolving common law of the Internet. Small, often
private disputes between individuals and organizations are today
creating the common law of the Internet, in at least as much as they
are a sign of society's continuing discourse on how to integrate the
Internet into our lives. The disputes we cover in CaseWatch today may
continue to be obscure, but more than likely, we'll look back at them
many years from now with the benefit of perspective and see their
importance.
CaseWatch isn't for the faint of heart. It assumes a knowledge of both
Internet technology and a not insignificant legal background. However
it should still be accessible to most everyone reading this list, as you
are already better educated on these issues than most of the public.
CaseWatch is researched and produced by Diana Jarvis (d...@vtw.org). Diana
graduated from Harvard in 1986, and Yale Law School in 1992. She clerked for
Justice Robert W. Sweet, a Federal District Judge in the southern district
of New York. She has been with VTW since 1994 and is currently VTW Center's
Staff Counsel.
Please take a moment and visit CaseWatch at VTW Center's new home page
at http://www.vtwctr.org Most of all, take a moment to send a note of
congratulations to Diana for her first VTW publication, as well as starting
work as VTW Center's first full time staff member. She can be reached
at d...@vtw.org.
Here is this month's CaseWatch synopsis:
What community standards should determine the obscenity of images
loaded onto a Californian BBS and downloaded into Tennessee? We still
don't know, thanks to the fact that Robert Thomas' habit of collecting
addresses from all his customers enabled the Sixth Circuit to decide that
the mere presence of a computer BBS did not make his operation any different
from the traditional pornographer who sends magazines or videotapes
through the mail. The Supreme Court apparently agrees, having denied
certioriari on October 7th.
Don't forget!
On Sunday November 3, 1996 will be the seminar on the New York State
Internet Censorship legislation. Be a part of it by showing up, or show
up online through RealAudio and participate in the trivia contest to win
valuable prizes (including VTW tshirts!). For more information on the
seminar, see http://www.vtw.org/speech/
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ABOUT CASEWATCH
[The following information is taken from http://www.vtwctr.org/casewatch/about/]
The legislation tracked by VTW is not the only law in cyberspace. As
the Internet becomes more prevalent, it will inevitably become the
subject of disputes, some of which will be settled in court. Because
the law laid down by judges in their opinions resolving these disputes
-- the common law -- is just as much law as legislation passed by
Congress, CaseWatch will try to track court opinions on issues
affecting the online community much as BillWatch tracks legislation.
Chicago Law School professor Lawrence Lessig has argued for a chance to
allow the common law of cyberspace to developed unhindered by
unnecessary and premature legislation:
"[W]hat the system of cyberspace regulation will need is a way to pace
any process of regulation -- a way to let the experience catch up with
the technology .... This is the practice of the common law. [It] is
democratic not because many people get to vote together on what the law
should mean, but because many people get to say what the common law
should mean, each ofter the other, in a temporally spaced dialogue of
cases and jurisdiction. Unlike other lawmaking, what defines the
process of the common law is small change, upon which much large change
gets built; small understandings with which new understandings get
made. What counsels it here is the way this process will function to
create in an as yet uninhabited, unconstructed, world.
What will be new are the communities that this space will allow, the
constructive ... possibilities that these communities will bring.
People meet, and talk, and live in cyberspace in ways not possible in
real space. They build and define themselves in cyberspace in ways not
possible in real space. And before they get cut apart by regulation, we
should know something about their form, and more about their
potential."
The Path of Cyberlaw, 104 Yale L.J. 1743, 1743-46 (1995).
Every new issue of Casewatch will try to bring you a new, usually quite
recent case that will reflect the development of Lessig's common law of
cyberspace and highlight the ways in which the Internet is quickly
being drawn into our legal lexicon.
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SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AND DONATION POLICY
We do not accept unsolicited donations at this time.
If you want to help, for heaven's sakes, register
to vote at http://netvote96.mci.com/register.html.
You can receive BillWatch via email or WWW:
To subscribe via email, send mail to majord...@vtw.org with
"subscribe vtw-announce" in the body of the message. To
unsubscribe from BillWatch send mail to majord...@vtw.org with
"unsubscribe vtw-announce" in the body of the message.
BillWatch can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.vtw.org/billwatch/
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End VTW BillWatch Issue #62, Date: Tue Oct 22 02:32:41 EDT 1996
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