lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (04/19/86)
There is no "liability problem" relating to such services. There are issues that must be understood, but they are not problems. The person in Dallas who commented about broadcasting/common carrier liability was simply trying to point out that there ARE differences between "pipeline" services and "value-added" services. Unfortunately, she gave the impression that there was something wrong with acting as anything other than a pipeline service. Usenix, which has funded the Stargate experiment up to this time, has not taken this point of view. Their view (as I understand it) is that there is nothing necessarily wrong with value-added services, and when you provide such a service you simply realize that you are accepting the same responsibilities as you would if you edited and published a magazine (or even a club newsletter, for that matter!) Anytime you do anything other than simply pass along virtually ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that anyone submits to you, you have left the common-carrier arena, if indeed you were in it in the first place. The issue is really academic in this case, since there is no intention (as far as I am concerned, certainly) for Stargate to be a "pipeline" service. I intend for all materials to have some degree of moderation. Some topics may be only lightly moderated to remove repetitious or obviously out of place materials, while other topics may be moderated more along the lines of professional journals. The Stargate bandwidth is wide, but it is not infinite. Control would have to be exercised in any case to make sure that the bandwidth isn't wasted by abusers, and I would like to see this control based on the quality of materials submitted, rather than on a "you can send anything if you've got lots of money, otherwise go away" type attitude. The goal of Stargate is to provide a HIGH QUALITY information service, not just a pipeline for junk. As such, the model that emerges is one where moderation provides for traffic control and helps to maintain a level of quality that will be worth people's time for participation. --Lauren-- P.S. For those of you wondering what "Stargate" is, it's an experiment in the transmitting of discussion materials, similar to those on "Usenet," via satellite and cable TV technology. The experiment has been sending test data, and is now in an organizational phase which will hopefully lead to the establishment of an actual and available service. My goal is for Stargate to be operated as a non-profit organization providing a variety of high quality services. Further questions should be sent to me directly. Thanks much. --Lauren--