The Opinion Police!!

[goofyfish]

They are out there, according to this Fox news item.

On first read, it just sounded like an extension of libel laws, reminding us that posting here is more akin to writing something than to speaking something that will disappear into the ether.

On my second pass through, I changed my mind. I think the point is not that the PC police gonna git you. The real issue is how easily ISPs and other providers rolled over legs spread wide to receive a subpoena on a (non-criminal) civil case. Here's a third party saying "I represent someone and we want you to break all of your own privacy policies and tell us whatever we want to know in this civil action against someone who MAY be a customer of yours and who MAY have committed a libelous act against my client."

And so it goes.

Peace.

 

[Adam]

The politically correct lobby group crusader arse-holes always want to make the world in their image "for the good of all". What they don't realise is that they are NAZI book-burning censoring scum-sucking weasel-fu##s who must die.

 

[Tiassa]

I wonder ...

A benefit of such legislation might also be integrity in the companies, but who am I kidding to propose that any corporation will be held responsible for deliberate, electronically-distributed misinformation. I worked at an insurance company; we used to get all manner of email from management that, by its information, was deliberately inaccurate. We even helped sink the economy. After a company takeover went poorly because of mismanagement, the CEO left (some mention of the takeover), the COO left (some mention of the takeover), and five VP's were dismissed (some mention of the takeover). A short while later, the company announced a 10% layoff, and blamed the economy.

In the meantime, someone started a Yahoo! group about the company that I never saw. But, knowing HR closely, I knew that they were watching for two things: libel and the disclosure of protected information. They even had a libel issue come up, and decided to take no action because the "damage" projected from the libel was much less than the damage of having to go into court and put them down. My God, if people ever found out what went on in that company, they'd burn the executives in the street.

How you make your posting board is an important point. I believe it was in Business Insurance Journal or some such trade magazine that a lawsuit by an airline against one of its employees turned sour for the company. In this case, the employee made a posting board requiring invite & password. Management surreptitiously obtained a password and entered the site, attempting to prosecute what they found there. At trial, the lawsuit was dismissed because the executives had stolen the password. Of course, in the tradition of American commerce, no illegality should really send you to jail. So the execs didn't get sent up for theft.

On the other hand, a company can successfully sue you for releasing unprotected, true information. An Illinois writer interviewed on NPR in '97 had written a story on organic milk. Apparently, rBGH had some nasty side effects. Lesions putting pus into the milk (often natural from industrial conditions) tripled in rBGH cows, and the milk didn't last as long as organinc milk without preservatives. Even though pasteurizaton kills the microbes and homogonization makes the milk a uniform consistency, the pus is still in there. Anyway, the writer submitted her story, and it was approved by her editors (Sun-Times, I believe, but don't quote me or they'll sue me). However, a state dairy board threatened to pull its lucrative advertising contract if the story printed, so it was quashed. The writer then took her story to an alternative newspaper (which was acceptable under her contract with the paper) and published it there.

The dairy board sued the writer and the alternative newspaper. The primary newspaper dismissed the writer.

And over in the state of Washington, at the time, every container of organic milk, by law, was required to declare that the lack of rBGH in the milk made no difference to the product's consistency, flavor, sanitation, or overall quality. I'm actually surprised they missed the expiration dates on the cartons. Anyone wonder why the expiration date on organic milk is usually five to seven days (and as much as fourteen days) later than the industrial milk beside it in the cooler? Well, if it doesn't affect product quality, then why can organic milk stay around longer without being consumed? rBGH apparently reduces the shelf-life of milk.

So it would seem that the only thing to do is to talk about fashion, and automobiles, and keeping up with the Joneses. By God, if you have an opinion about anything important, you might get sued or thrown in jail or some-such.

And you know, if ISP's are rolling over, it's partially because of the way they do business. When you operate on credit 100% of the time, you have no standing cash to pay your attorneys. It's probably just easier to give up the information than to fight the request. And, besides ... if it ever becomes an issue, who's going to give credibility to the guy who's suing his ISP? After all, he's just mad because he got caught talking about something.

thanx,
Tiassa

 

[esp]

Data Protection Act

There is an act in the UK which not only prevents organizations from passing on data held about one electronically, but also guarrantees individuals the right to acccess this data.

I don't know if it applies to written opinions such as those contained in in the forums, but it seems logical...

 

[Riomacleod]

You know... this depresses me greatly.. our basic rights are being eroded every day... it's very upsetting to watch. Pretty soon we won't be able to disagree with any corporate wrongdoing or government screwup.

 

[Adam]

I can understand it from companies and governments. They are obviously and reasonably looking after their own arses. What I don't like is when incredibly noisy little lobby groups erode our freedoms. For example, these days if you say "bitch" or "nigger" or something here (but not "honkey" or "whitey", you don't get in trouble for insulting the majority), you risk going to jail and such. Not that I condone such speech. I don't like people saying such things, but I like people be able to say such things. These lobby groups don't see it that way. They see their crusade and nothing else, and nothing is going to get in their way, especially not freedom. Driven by emotion rather than rational thought, they jump up and down in front of TV cameras and politicians until they get their way, and the rest of us be damned. To me, such crusading imbeciles are far worse than any government or corporation.