Re: [ga-full] RE: [ga] Proposal: WWW / slashdot

[Joop Teernstra <terastra@terabytz.co.nz>]

At 10:46 29/02/00 -0500, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:

>I personally reject the suggestion that anonymity and/or pseudonymity are
>either bad or a sign of something evil to hide.  Indeed, they seem to me
>to offer the only answer, however poor, to legitimate fears some people
>have expressed (mostly off list) that controversial postings might lead to
>direct retaliation against them personally.
>
>For more on anonymity and pseudonymity see
>http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/ocean.htm
>
>I would support allowing anonymous posting to the list.  Even some sort of
>"identity escrow" to prevent multiple identities (which don't bother me,
>but I know would bother others) would be preferable to a blanket
>prohibition.
>

Michael,

Your article, although old in Internet years (digicash has now been well
and truly strangled), makes interesting reading and does take the negative
side of anonymous postings well into account.

While I agree with you on many other points that you have made in this
forum, on this one I would like to give some weight to the other side of
the anonymity coin: while I recognize legitimate fears for retaliation for
"controversial" postings (people *do* get sudden IRS audits) , I also feel
that the victims of libel and gross defamation need to be able to identify
their attackers in order to exercise their fair legal remedies.

Anonymous postings can end up giving disproportionate power to those few
who choose to abuse such freedom. 
In a forum like the GA, there is much to be said for all participants being
equal in this respect.




--Joop Teernstra LL.M.--  , founder  of
the Cyberspace Association,
the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners
http://www.idno.org  (or direct:) 
http://www.democracy.org.nz/idno/

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