Chapter 3:

1st Amendment

First Amendment

• Freedom of speech and of the press

• Adopted in 1791 as part of our Bill of Rights

• Covers spoken and written words, art, pictures, & other expressions of ideas & opinions

First Amendment

• Not protected: Child pornography Defamation (libel – written; slander – oral) Speech harmful to children Causing panic Incitement to a crime

Changing Communication Paradigms

• Regulating Communications Media Print media (newspapers, magazines, books) Broadcast (television, radio) Common carriers (telephones, postal system)

SpamSpam

• Blocking spam a violation of 1st Amendment rights?

• Of the 200 billion email messages sent per day, 80-90% are spam

Spam Solutions

• Challenge-response filtering

• Services that businesses can subscribe to the keep lists of spammers to block

• Pay-to-email schemes

• The federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2004 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act )

Sensitive Material

• Yahoo vs French censorship the 1999 case 2000 French court order

• Which country’s laws should be enforced?

• Information that could be used to harm people

• White-supremacist groups• Right-wing militia groups• Anti-abortion groups• Stalkers

Sensitive Material

Censorship in Other Nations

• Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan

• China• Yahoo, MSN, Google• Ai Weiwei

Defamation

• “publisher” or “distributor”?

• A few cases: Cubby Inc. v. CompuServe Inc. (1991) Stratton Oakmont Inc. v. Prodigy Services

(1995) Zeran v. America Online Inc. (1997)

Obscene ContentObscene Content

• How to interpret “community standards”

• Art vs pornography

• California couple in 1994

Protecting ChildrenProtecting Children

• 1996 CDA (Communications Decency Act) – too broad and too vague – did not use the least restrictive means to protect children

• 1998 COPA (Child Online Protection Act) – also too broad

• 2000 CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) – this is what is in effect now

Child Pornography & Sexting

• 2009 – six teens at a PA high school

• 2008 – Jessica Logan, Ohio teenager

• 2009 – Phil Alpert, Florida teenager

• 2008 – Ting-Yi Oei, assistant principal at Freedom High School in South Riding, VA

Cyberbullying and Online Postings

• 2009, Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives

• Student Suspended for Facebook Page Can Sue (2.15.2010)

• Teacher may lose job after derogatory comments about her students on Facebook (2.15.2010)

AnonymityAnonymity

• Anonymity is protected by the First Amendment

• Should it be? Does the potential harm by criminals who use anonymity to hide from the law outweigh the loss of privacy & restraint on freedom of speech for honest people who use anonymity responsibly?

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions

• Should businesses be able to get the real names of people posting messages that they object to? SLAPP, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public

Participation

• ISPs keeping records of true identities of each user for a specified period of time prevents true anonymity -> does this conflict with the 1st Amendment?

Net Neutrality or De-regulation?

• Net Neutrality Equal access to the Internet (not allowing companies

to exclude or give special treatment to content transmitted based on the content itself or on the company that provides it? - e.g. AT&T’s proposal)

• De-regulation Flexibility and market incentives will benefit customers

(Should companies be permitted to provide different levels of speed at different prices? Or to block material from various sources?)

Supporters of Net Neutrality

• “Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success...A number of justifications have been created to support carrier control over consumer choices online; none stand up to scrutiny.” - Vint Cerf Google Chief Internet Evangelist and Co-Developer of the Internet

Protocol

Supporters of Net Neutrality

• “The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true. Let us protect the neutrality of the net.” - Tim Berners-Lee Inventor of the World Wide Web

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions

• 3.32 page 191: To what extent is violence on the Web and in computer games responsible for shootings in schools? What should be done about it without violating the First Amendment?