Download Gift of Fire

A Gift of Fire
Sara Baase
Chapter 3: Freedom of Speech
Slides prepared by Cyndi Chie and Sarah Frye
What We Will Cover
Changing Communication Paradigms
Controlling Offensive Speech
Censorship on the Global Net
Political Campaign Regulations in
Cyberspace
Anonymity
Protecting Access and Innovation: Net
Neutrality or De-regulation?
Freedom of speech
is the freedom to speak without
censorship or limitation, that does not
include only freedom of verbal speech
but any act of seeking, receiving and
imparting information or ideas, regardless
of the medium used
Changing Communication Paradigms
Regulating Communications Media:
Three-part framework for First
Amendment protection and government
regulation
(1) Print media (newspapers, magazines,
books)
Has the strongest protection
 the trend has been toward fewer government
restraints on the printed words
Changing Communication Paradigms
(2) Broadcast (television, radio)
More restrictions
Government grants broadcasting licenses
Because of scarcity of broadcast frequencies (early)
and the broadcast material comes into the home
Changing Communication Paradigms
 (3) Common carries (telephones, postal system)
 The law prohibits them from controlling the content of
material that passes through their system
Changing Communication Paradigms
(cont.)
Telecommunication Act of 1996:
 Changed regulatory structure and removed
artificial legal divisions of service areas and
restrictions on services that telephone
companies can provide
 No provider or user of interactive computer
service shall be treated as a publisher of any
information provided by another informationcontent provider
Changing Communication Paradigms
(cont.)
Free-speech Principles:
Written for offensive and/or controversial
speech and ideas
Restriction on the power of government,
not individuals or private businesses
Changing Communication Paradigms
(cont.)
Free-speech Principles (cont.):
 Supreme Court principles and guidelines
Advocating illegal acts is legal
Does not protect libel and direct, specific threats
Inciting violence is illegal
Allows some restrictions on advertising
Protect anonymous speech
Controlling Offensive Speech
What is it? What is illegal?
What is offensive speech? What should
the law restrict on the Web?
Answer depends on who you are
It could be a political or religious speech
Many efforts to censor the Internet
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
What was already illegal?
 Obscenity
Lacks literary, artistic, social, political or scientific value
So First amendment does not protect obscene material
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives:
 Communication Decency Act (CDA)
Federal judge stated that the Internet is the most
participatory form of mass communication
Attempted to avoid conflict with first amendment by
focusing on children
It provided that anyone who made available to
anyone under 18 any communication that is obscene
or indecent would be subject to a fine of $ 100,000
and two years in prisons
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
• Communication Decency Act (CDA) continue:
 Cyberspace has changed the risks to the children (the
anonymity of the Net makes it easier for people to prey on
children)
 Sometimes undesired sites arrives in e-mails and that sites
turn up in results found by search engines for innocent
topics
 But also the Internet deserves the highest protection from
government intrusion
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives (cont.):
 Communication Decency Act (CDA) (cont.)
Found to be unconstitutional:
 The worst material threatening children was already illegal
 It was too vague and broad
 It did not use the least restrictive means of accomplishing
the goal of protecting children
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives (cont.):
 Child Online Protection Act of 1998 (COPA):
 Federal crime for commercial web sites to make available to
minors harmful material by FCC standards
 Found to be unconstitutional:
 Government did not show that COPA was necessary to protect
children because the Web accessible everywhere and the
community standards provision would restrict the entire country
the most conservative community
 Child Online Protection Commission concluded that less
restrictive means, filtering, was superior to COPA
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives (cont.):
 Filters
Blocks sites with specific words, phrases or images
Parental control for violence
Updated frequently but may still screen out too much or
too little
Not possible to eliminate all errors
What should be blocked? (24% of health sites blocked)
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Internet Censorship Laws & Alternatives (cont.):
 Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000 (CIPA):
 Requires schools and libraries that participate in certain federal
programs to install filtering software
 Upheld in court:
 Does not violate First Amendment since it does not require the use
of filters, impose jail or fines
 It sets a condition for receipt of certain federal funds
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Spam:
 What’s the problem?
 unsolicited commercial,electronic messages” –
includes Email,
 SMS, MMS and IM; faxes
 Mostly commercial advertisement
 Angers people because content and the way it’s sent
 Free speech issues
 Spam imposes a cost on others not protected by free speech
(spam messages uses AOL systems)
 Spam filters do not violate free speech (free speech does not
require intended listeners, or e-mail recipient to listen)
The Spam
 Amount of email that is spam has increased
8% in 2001
40% in 2003
75% in 2007
 Spam is effective
More than 100 times cheaper than “junk mail”
Profitable even if only 1 in 100,000 buys product
How do spammers find us?
 Chat Rooms
 Instant Messaging
 Cookies and Spyware
 Email Harvesting Robots
 Attacks on your Mail Server
Who are the spammers?
Advertisers
Who is else???
Controlling Offensive Speech (cont.)
Spam (cont.):
Anti-spam Laws
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited
Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM
Act)
Targets commercial spam
Criticized for not banning all spam, rather than
legitimized commercial spam
Decreasing the spam you get
 Make sure your email address is not available to be
plucked off the Internet
 Disguise e-mail address posted in a public electronic place
(example at domain dot com)
 Post an image of your email address
 Exercise your choice on online forms.
 Use Multiple email addresses
Filter
Solutions from amrket and business
policy
 (1)Business and programmers created variety of
filtering products, by blocking email from
specified addresses, by blocking messages with
particular words.
 (2)ISPs block certain email from their system
and also let individual members establish their
own lists and criteria for mail to block
Solutions from amrket and business
policy
(3)Challenge –response spam filtering :
the filter automatically quarantines each
incoming message from any unkonwn
return address and sends an email back
to sender.
(4)many business subscribe to services
that provide lists of spammers to block
Decreasing spam (cont.)
How to respond to spam
DON’T
Posting and selling sensitive
materials
 The web provides the potential for reducing prices of
many products by eliminating the “middleman”.
 The laws Prevent sales to minors with violence
 It is important for sellers and Web sites to take seriously
their roles and responsibility in deciding what material
they will make available.
 Individuals should exercise responsibility when posting
to Web sites
Posting and Selling Sensitive
Materials
Guidelines for making decisions about
posting sensitive material
Consider unintended readers or users
Consider potential risks
Consider ways to limit access to intended users
Remember that it can be difficult to remove
material form the Net once you have posted it
Controlling Offensive Speech
Discussion Questions
Why is ‘least restrictive means’ important?
Do you consider the Internet an
appropriate tool for young children? Why
or why not?
Posting, Selling, and Leaking
Sensitive Material
 Leaks
 Type of material
 Value to society
 Risks to society and individuals
155-156
Posting, Selling, and Leaking
Sensitive Material
 Leaks (cont.)
 Examples
 WikiLeaks
156-157
Posting, Selling, and Leaking
Sensitive Material
 Leaks (cont.)
 Potentially dangerous leaks
 Releasing a huge mass of documents
157-158
Posting, Selling, and Leaking
Sensitive Material
Discussion Question
Does the value of informing the public of
controversial and sensitive information
outweigh the dangers and risks?
155-156
Posting, Selling, and Leaking
Sensitive Material
 Leaks (cont.)
 Responsibilities of operators of Web sites for
leaks
157-159
Challenges Posed by the Internet
Many-to-many communication
Dynamic connections
Huge numbers of Web sites
Extends beyond national borders, laws
Can’t determine age of users
Censorship on the Global Net
Global Impact of Censorship
 Global nature of the Internet protects against
censorship (banned in one country, move to
another)
 May impose more restrictive censorship (block
everything in an attempt to block one thing) (ex.
China blocked BBC transmission)
 Yahoo and French censorship
Yahoo, eBay and others make decisions to comply with
foreign laws for business reasons
Censorship on the Global Net (cont.)
Censorship in Other Nations:
 Attempts to limit the flow of information on the
Internet similar to earlier attempts to place limits
on other communications media
 Some countries own the Internet backbone
within their countries, block at the border specific
sites and content
 Some countries ban all or certain types of
access to the Internet
Censorship on the Global Net (cont.)
Aiding Foreign Censors:
 Companies who do business in countries that
control Internet access must comply with the
local laws
 Internet companies that are based in free
countries offer services in countries with strict
censorship
 Google argued that some access is better than
no access
Political Campaign Regulations in
Cyberspace
Campaign Laws and the Internet:
Political Campaign Regulations . . . (cont.)
Campaign Laws and the Internet (cont.):
 Federal Election Commission (FEC) administers election
laws
 Covers content placed on the Internet for a fee
 Unpaid individuals may put political content on their Web site,
send emails, blog, create or host a campaign-related Web site
and provide links to campaign sites
 Media exemption applies to traditional news media and those
whose only presence is on the Web
Anonymity
Common Sense and the Internet:
 Anonymity protected by the First Amendment
 Services available to send anonymous email
(Anonymizer.com)
 Anonymizing services used by individuals,
businesses, law enforcement agencies, and
government intelligence services
Anonymity (cont.)
Is Anonymity Protected?
 FEC( federal election commission) exempted individuals
and organizations that are not compensated from
election laws that restrict anonymity
 Supreme Court has overturned state laws that restrict
anonymity
 SLAPP, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation lawsuits filed (generally libel) used to obtain the
identities (via subpoena) of those expressing critical or
dissenting opinions
Anonymity (cont.)
Against Anonymity:
 Fears
 It hides crime or protects criminals
 Glowing reviews (such as those posted on eBay or
Amazon.com) may actually be from the author, publisher, seller,
or their friends
 U.S. and European countries working on laws that
require ISPs to maintain records of the true identity of
each user and maintain records of online activity for
potential use in criminal investigations
Protecting Access and Innovation
Net Neutrality?
 Should companies be permitted to exclude or
give special treatment to content transmitted
based on the content itself or on the company
that provides it?
 Should companies be permitted to provide
different levels of speed at different prices?
Protecting Access and Innovation (cont.)
Net Neutrality (cont.)
 Net Neutrality
 Argue for equal treatment of all customers
 Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality
prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or
slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or
destination.
 Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should
be in control of what content they view and what applications
they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according
to this neutrality principle since its earliest days...
Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the
Internet
 Opponents of net neutrality argue that neutrality regulations
will slow the advance of high speed internet connection and
improvements in infrastructure.