[Politech] ADL's Brian Marcus replies to Politech over hate crimes, Net-censorship [fs]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Mon Sep 26 2005 - 11:10:50 PDT


By way of background, here's a cogent argument against "hate crime" 
legislation:
http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-tl051199.html

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/09/26/defamation-league-criticized/

-Declan

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Politech] Anti-Defamation League criticized for efforts 
to "	curb" online speech it doesn't like [fs]
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:48:33 -0400
From: Marcus, Brian <BMarcus@private>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@private>

*Sigh*

Nothing like having one's work misrepresented.

Please see: http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp for an extensive piece
on ADL's reasons for our support of hate crime legislation.

See also: http://www.adl.org/learn/hate_internet/default.asp for materials
on investigating hate crimes on the Internet.

And to the point about the First Amendment - please see:
http://www.adl.org/internet/internet_law1.asp and the speeches given at the
June 2004 OSCE meeting in Paris:
http://www.adl.org/osce/default_osce_paris.asp

We believe that ISPs have the right to enforce their ToS and AUP when people
violate them.  We advocate NGOs, and in the European context there are some
government-supported programs, contacting ISPs and hosts when their rules
have apparently been violated so they can determine whether they would like
to continue to do business with, or allow a customer to utilize their
service.

It is pretty basic - most people seem to understand that when you sign up
for hosting or access through your ISP you agree to abide by their rules.
If a company says they will not host certain types of materials, or allow
you to use their service to transmit certain types of materials, and you
agree to their rules - if you break those rules a company can choose to no
longer allow you to use their service.

I advise your readers to look at these materials so they can better
understand that we are not trying to "destroy the First Amendment."  And if
they can cut through the hyperbole evidenced below and read our position
they can see we understand the nature of the Internet, the complexities of
freedom of speech and respect that there are different approaches to online
hate across the world.  We do not believe in attempts to legislate hate out
of existence, but do think that when hate motivates a crime there should be
enhanced penalties, and that freedom of speech is vital but companies do not
have to host hatred.


Brian Marcus
Director of Internet Monitoring
Civil Rights Division

Anti-Defamation League
823 United Nations Plaza
NY, NY 10017
bmarcus@private
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