lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (02/11/85)
Sorry to post this back to the same groups, but I wanted to make sure that people didn't read the posting from Mr. Lenoil and think that ANYTHING had been decided except for the decision not to continue with one particular prosecution: ----- It seems unlikely that this represents a test case for anything. There were a number of factors in this particular case that make it very specific and unlikely to form any basis of law. In particular, it involved only one particular message and not a pattern of messages. What would happen with BBS's that routinely allowed the posting of such messages with credit card numbers, libelous or copyrighted materials, etc.? I'll give odds that in that kind of case, there would be sufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution. It should also be noted that another case (more serious than the MOG-UR case) is already apparently in its early stages. It supposedly involves a BBS that was set up and used by Neo-Nazis to discuss and plan various illegal activities. The operator of the BBS has publicly claimed that he doesn't know anything about what people discuss on his system -- he doesn't care. Both the U.S. and Canada are apparently involved with the case. In other words, I don't think we're looking at any kind of general ruling from MOG-UR (in fact, I know we're not, since a prosecution dismissal does not establish any points of law) and I would expect to see additional actions taken against systems--but presumably using more than a single message as evidence. There was simply not enough evidence in the MOG-UR case for them to proceed, but there will be other cases. And next time, I suspect the prosecuters will wait until they have plenty of evidence before they file. --Lauren--