text abuse

"Wolfgang" wrote in


Interesting case, Bill. What's your position on this?



I've, of course, no clue about Bill's view .... but mine


is that anyone that would say things on the Internet he wouldn't have the
balls to say face to face deserves punishment. Now I mean that more in a
social sense than a legal one, as free speach is something we need to
defend.

But, the various forms of Internet cummunication are taking an increasingly
important role in all our human to human encounters and I think it will
become necessary to provide limits on what can be said without the offended
person having legal means to stop it and/or be compensated for it. If
someone wrote material that was untrue, and harmful to me in my local
newspaper .... I'd sue and expect to win .... what's the difference, if the
media changes?

Now, clearly the Net has a "tradition" of tolerating true assholes and
deviates but I believe that as the media matures so will the behavior
required to use it, free from financial retaliation. At least I hope so,
since much of what now happens is at the lowest level of human interaction
and the media has much potential to improve man's interaction with man, not
lower it to Jr High posturing gone mad behind a "screen name."