Once again, anti-abortion protesters are setting legal precedents. The last big case was the Nuremberg Files: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=nuremberg Now it's a news-ish story, photograph and hospital report published on the Missionaries to the Unborn website. A judge has ruled that in this case, privacy trumps free speech and some of that information must be removed. Of course, (partial) mirror sites have already cropped up, and it's far cheaper for the anti-abortion activists to set up mirrors in places like South Africa than it is for the plaintiffs to sue every one of them. If that doesn't work, look for the anti-abortion activists to turn to cheap, anonymous publishing tools like Freenet. Economics favors unfettered expression over privacy. Background on lawsuit: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_div=3&u_hdg=0&u_sid=164639 While the Omaha World-Herald did include the URL to the site, the below AP story does not. The URL seems to be: http://www.mttu.com/main.htm Judging from the "Missionaries" homepage, they're using some of the document-police-contact tactics employed by anti-globalization protesters. (Note I am not saying I agree with what the anti-abortion activists are doing; what I'm doing is pointing out a trend.) -Declan ******* http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010823/tc/abortion_internet_2.html Judge Keeps Woman's Records Off Net EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A judge Wednesday ordered three anti-abortion activists to stop publishing a woman's medical records detailing complications from an abortion. The woman was treated at St. Elizabeth hospital in Granite City in June after suffering complications from an abortion at the Hope Clinic for Women. Daniel and Angela Michael of Highland, who are regular protesters at the clinic, admitted they took pictures of the woman as she was taken to the hospital's emergency room. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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