[Vision2020] Bill Moore - First Step Internet

[Janesta]

What a pity. I was under the impression this was a private forum, in that
my comments could not be found on the web.

Janesta

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> And your name is . . . ?
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "If not us, who?
> If not now, when?"
>
> - Unknown
>
> On Nov 30, 2011, at 2:16 PM, "ML394" <ml394 at hushmail.com> wrote:
>
> What I heard about First Step Internet is this:
>
> Due to the way the forum posts are being tracked by Google these days,
> anyone can come on this forum and claim to be a person who they are not.
> Anyone can say anything about someone else (even slander them) and those
> posts will be tracked by Google and connected to the name of the slandered
> person.
>
> In fact, most of the email addresses used to post to this forum could
> never be tracked or traced to the name on the forum post.  There is no easy
> way to prove that any of the forum members are who they claim to be.
>
> So, if someone were to claim on this forum to be BILL MOORE, who loves to
> steal money, commit crimes and wants others to share in his life of
> self-debasement, there would be no way to prove that BILL MOORE did not
> author the post.  And yet the slander remains online.  And we all know that
> Bill Moore of First Step Internet is hardly a degenerate.  He is one of the
> most upstanding people in the area, a man who stands for freedom of speech
> and the freedom to slander people, too.
>
> First Step Internet assumes no liability for the posts on this forum, but
> according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation hosting a forum which
> enables members to slander people by name and not just by their screen name
> creates a legal liability for the hosting company.  In this case, First
> Step Internet is legally responsible for actually promoting the Vision 2020
> forum on Google and other search engines.  First Step Internet is legally
> responsible for the slander its members write about others.
>
> The way I look at it, the longer First Step Internet lets Google track the
> slanderous comments that have been made on the forum the greater the
> liability.  And First Step Internet would be out of business quickly.
>
> While I appreciate how important First Step Internet has been in the
> development of government-funded, rural internet access and the development
> of Vision 2020, I am certain that First Step Internet would be better off
> (from a legal standpoint) making Vision 2020 a private forum that promotes
> free speech but does not allow search engines to track the content of its
> posts.
>
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                <http://www.fsr.net>http://www.fsr.net
>           <Vision2020 at moscow.com>mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com<Vision2020 at moscow.com>
> =======================================================
>
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
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