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Freedom Action of the Week
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Free-Market.Net's F r e e d o m A c t i o n o f t h e W e e k ------------------------------------------------------------------ Edited by Mary Lou Seymour. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this and other lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/ Third week of July, 2002: Help protect anonymous speech online One of the basic premises of a free society is the right to free speech. Along with the right to freely assemble in protest, freely write your opinion to the newspaper and freely engage in debate comes the right to express your opinion anonymously ... with anonymous flyers, signs or, in today's online society, anonymous email messages, bulletin board postings or web sites. Even if you yourself never feel the need to use anonymous speech to get your point across, remember that anonymous pamphleteering played an important role in the founding of our free society ... including the famous pamphlets of Tom Paine and the initial anonymous publication of the Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Their modern counterparts today may well be using today's "public square," the Internet. For an overview of anonymous speech in history, see John Does.org's excellent summation. "CyberSLAPP" cases are so-called because they are Internet versions of a much older abuse of the legal system known as SLAPPs, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. SLAPP cases are typically brought by powerful corporations or public figures against regular individuals who oppose them in some way, to intimidate and silence the opposition. Some of the things they might accuse the writer of include defamation, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, nuisance, breach of contract and/or economic advantage. Even if the free speaker can defend himself on First Amendment grounds, the expense of going to court may prohibit an adequate defense (particularly against a rich opponent). The purpose of this "strategy" is to chill public participation and open debate on important public issues, as other people (as well as the SLAPP defendants) refrain from speaking out on issues of public concern because they too fear being sued for what they say. In a cyberSLAPP suit, the target of anonymous online criticism typically files a lawsuit against a "John Doe" defendant and then issues an identity-seeking subpoena to an ISP. There is currently no legal requirement that ISPs notify their customers before complying with such subpoenas -- even though many of the lawsuits are frivolous and have no chance of prevailing in court. That means your anonymity could be lost before you even know it's under attack. A coalition of civil liberties and privacy groups is calling on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other online companies to adopt policies protecting their users' right to anonymous speech on the Internet. The coalition, which includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and Public Citizen, has written to more than 100 ISPs, including a sample policy with its letter and asking the ISPs to include in their privacy policies a promise that they will notify any customer whose personal information or identity is subpoenaed. The coalition has a new "CyberSlapp" web site which includes a broad range of information about the issue -- a FAQ for the general public, legal briefs and other detailed information about ongoing legal battles. For this week's action, let's help in the coalition's efforts! Find out your ISP's policy on the handling of subpoenas, and encourage them -- and any web sites you frequent -- to pledge to notify you of any subpoena before any private information is disclosed. Write or email your ISP, ask what their policy is, and include a copy of the coalition's letter and sample policy with your letter or email. Four major online service providers -- Yahoo!, Earthlink, Microsoft, and America Online -- already notify their customers when they receive subpoenas for identifying information. If you do not use one of these providers, you could certainly point out in your letter to your ISP that their competitors already have this policy in place. (If you use one of these ISPs, you might want to thank them for their policy.) The other thing we all need to do is educate ourselves about our free speech rights and spread the word to others. For information on what to do if you do get a subpoena, The California Anti-SLAPP Project has a Survival Guide for SLAPP Victims which gives pointers on how to protect yourself and fight a SLAPP (meatspace or cyberspace), as well as info on anti-SLAPP statutes and pending legislation in other states. If you live in a state with an anti- SLAPP law, you may be able to recover damages if your opponent files a frivolous SLAPP suit against you. Til next week, For Freedom (in meatspace and cyberspace!) Mary Lou ================================================ A History of Anonymous Speech: http://www.free-market.net/rd/887400779.html Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): http://www.free-market.net/rd/120291052.html Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC): http://www.free-market.net/rd/889010813.html American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) -- Cyberspace must be free: http://www.free-market.net/rd/890240941.html Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT): http://www.free-market.net/rd/844540105.html Public Citizen: http://www.free-market.net/rd/892371013.html Letter sent by coalition to ISPs http://www.free-market.net/rd/893511064.html cyberSLAPP and the ongoing legal battles: http://www.free-market.net/rd/895231242.html CASP Survival Guide for SLAPP Victims http://www.free-market.net/rd/896661284.html States with Anti-SLAPP statutes, and pending legislation http://www.free-market.net/rd/897321296.html ====================== PS: In last week's Action (Your papers, please) I included a link to a flyer by Flex Your Rights. Unfortunately, the link I provided only gave the front page of the flyer. To access BOTH sides of the flyer, see http://www.flexyourrights.org/flyer.html -- "Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others." -- Edward Abbey
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
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