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[FYI] In Shaping of Internet Law, First Amendment Is Winning
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] In Shaping of Internet Law, First Amendment Is Winning
- From: "Axel H. Horns" <Horns@t-online.de>
- Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 09:43:44 +0200
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: PA Axel H. Horns
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/12/196l-091299-
idx.html
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In Shaping of Internet Law, First Amendment Is Winning
By Joan Biskupic
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 12, 1999; Page A02
When a federal judge refused to stop the gadfly operator of an
Internet site from publishing confidential Ford Motor Co. documents
last week, she described the dispute over trade secrets as a clash
between free speech and commercial innovation.
"In this case, the battle is won by the First Amendment," Detroit
Judge Nancy G. Edmunds concluded, allowing the operator of the
blueovalnews.com site to continue posting the confidential documents
he said he had received anonymously.
Legal experts touted Edmunds's opinion as a major precedent for free
speech in cyberspace. But it is only the latest in an emerging
pattern of decisions enhancing expression in the communications
revolution that is the Web.
Equally striking, the ruling in the Ford case illustrates how even
though the Internet has transformed how people go about their lives,
it has not transformed the law. Unlike the rise of broadcast
television and other media over the decades, in which new
technologies generated new bodies of law and extensive government
regulation, the Internet is being treated much like newspapers or
books, with judges emphasizing the primacy of the First Amendment.
[...]
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