LAW AND ETHICS ON THE "NETS"

Looks like more of a push for regulation:  Charles Bell
thought you all might have something to say about this...
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              ABA SCI/TECH SECTION, IPPP COMMITTEE
                  LAW AND ETHICS ON THE "NETS"
                        December 8, 1994

     The John Marshall Law School's Center for Informatics Law, in
conjunction with the ABA Section of Science & Technology Committee
on Information Practices, Policies, and Privacy, is undertaking a
project entitled, "Law and Ethics on the 'Nets'" (LEON).

     The development of a national information infrastructure and
a global electronic network, of which Internet is the backbone, has
presented a multitude of legal and ethical problems involving use
and abuse of the networks, nationally and worldwide.  Almost on a
daily basis, news items announce electronic network transmissions
constituting hate mail, profanity, vulgarity, obscenity, child
pornography, sexual harassment, defamation and invasion of privacy.

The violation of intellectual property rights and information
system security are also frequent occurrences.  National and
international discussions consider such questions as what "rules of
the road" ought to apply, who can make them, how can they be
enforced, and what will be the legal and political relationships
between states and nations regarding cyberspace?  It is argued that
at present the lawless, the intolerant and the disrespectful seem
able to pollute the worldwide information stream with little
constraint.

     Certainly, the current state of anarchy in national and global
electronic networks cannot continue if the technology is to achieve
the remarkable benefits that have been predicted in terms of
communications among institutions and individuals, whether
government, business or society at large.  The purpose of the
CIL/S&T project is to promote a dialogue that can lead to
recommendations for treating with the many issues at hand.

     We solicit the participation of the Sci/Tech IPPP Committee
(and interested others!) in addressing the foregoing issues.
Please send me your expression of interest -- indicating what
specific aspects of the various questions you would like to
address, and then I'll organize us into some working groups.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR INTERESTS BY JANUARY 9, 1995, SO WE CAN
STRUCTURE THE PROJECT AND PROMPTLY GET UNDER WAY.

     We plan a program on the project for the ABA annual meeting in
Chicago next August, and we hope to generate a publication for the
Section concerning the project results.


George B. Trubow, Professor of Law
Director, Center for Informatics Law
The John Marshall Law School
315 S. Plymouth Ct.
Chicago, IL 60604-3907
Fax: 312-427-8307; Voice: 312-987-1445
E-mail: 7trubow@jmls.edu




Marsha Woodbury     marsha-w@uiuc.edu    U of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign
FAX 217-356-7050        Home 217-337-0001       Work 217-244-0780
http://www.cpsr.org/dox/global.html

This is pretty scary, I mean it always sat in the back of my mind 
that they would attemt to rgulate the net, and to pass legislation and 
all, but now that it is rearing it's head and looks like there is going 
to be a push for it, I am actually concerned, to teh point of fear 
almost.  Not a paralyzing fear, but a definite feeling that action is 
neccesary now to either head it off, or provide for alternative forms of 
communication on the Net if it does come.  Thank goodness the cypherpunks 
have been working on crypto, it is at least deployed enough now that any 
attempt to control that would entail drastic measures, like REALLY 
drastic. 

	I think perhaps we should make a concerted effort to alert eh 
rest of the net of these happenings, and to tell them to contact their 
legislators and such to try and stop it, or at least attempt to stop the 
hystericism that these articles will drum up in congress.  Perhaps 
someone will be kind enough to write "newsletter" or a post to be spread 
throught usenet and other BBS's and mailing lists(under control, not 
spamming or anything) that alerts people on what is happening, and what 
they can do about it. I am afraid I am to inexperienced as a writer of 
such things, I could do it, but i am sure that others here would do much 
better jobs of it, and thus influence mroe action from the people on the 
net. 

get on your boots fellas, load your guns too.  Loks like a war is 
starting up, or is it a police action 8)

i want to know everything          http://www.mcs.com/~nesta/home.html
i want to be everywhere                     Nesta's Home Page        
i want to fuck everyone in the world               &
i want to do something that matters         /-/ a s t e zine

On Tue, 3 Jan 1995, Nesta Stubbs wrote:

> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 16:34:22 +0000
> From: Nesta Stubbs <nesta@nesta.pr.mcs.net>
> To: Cypherpunks <cypherpunks@toad.com>
> Subject: calls for regulation
> 
> 
> 	This is pretty scary, I mean it always sat in the back of my mind 
> that they would attemt to rgulate the net, and to pass legislation and 
> all, but now that it is rearing it's head and looks like there is going 
> to be a push for it, I am actually concerned, to teh point of fear 
> almost. 

Let me blow all your horns.

Kudos to the exposure.

Just goes to support my theory that cypherpunks tend to be way ahead of 
the rest of the world in predicting political moves.

I have little doubt this one will come to a head as well.


> 
> i want to know everything          http://www.mcs.com/~nesta/home.html
> i want to be everywhere                     Nesta's Home Page        
> i want to fuck everyone in the world               &
> i want to do something that matters         /-/ a s t e zine
> 

073BB885A786F666 nemo repente fuit turpissimus - potestas scientiae in usu est
6E6D4506F6EDBC17 quaere verum ad infinitum, loquitur sub rosa    -    wichtig!