Something less than a hysterical response
Mandatory Disclaimer: I am not a practicing attorney. Do not rely on what I have to say here. This post is provided for informational purposes only.
For those of you who've just tuned in: a self-appointed group of pedophile-hunters has been reporting to LJ a variety of comms and journals that list "pedophilia" and other buzzwords in their interests. LJ has apparently been suspending those comms and journals without notice. While they are capturing a number of honest-to-god pedophilia communities (ewww!), they have also suspended a number of fanfiction communities, RPG communities, journals of incest/abuse survivors, and one community dedicated to a slow reread of Lolita. Fans are freaking out all over the place.
On to the substance of this post:
In the interests of keeping the hysteria focused on the real issues, I've updated the rant on free speech which I posted a few months ago here.
The primary legal issue with regards to the current kerfuffle is that Six Apart (6A) is suspending comms and journals without any exercise of discretion because the use of discretion could make them responsible for the content their users are posting. It's the difference between the editor of your local paper and the guy who tosses it onto your front step every morning. One is the publisher and the other is a carrier: one is responsible for content and the other isn't. (Hat tip to synecdochic for reminding me of this the other day.)
Given that the Child Online Protection Act provides for penalties of $50,000 per day, I do not think it is grossly overreacting of 6A to respond the way they have. They have other users than fandom, and they are in the business of making money.
Please do not muddy the waters of a complicated situation by asserting that this is a First Amendment Issue OMG. It is not, at least not for fans, because no government agency has taken action. If 6A were to be charged with violations of COPA, as a publisher, they might in fact assert a First Amendment defense, but I wouldn't want to be the lawyer arguing that underage Weasleycest is not, in fact, obscenity before a panel of middle-aged judges--not even in the 9th Circuit.
This is not the way I would have expected fandom on LJ to get hit legally (and FanLib might well learn some lessons from it, with regards to how they're handling their own liability), but now that I think about it, it's not all that surprising.
So--who's up for a return to the glory days of listservs? ::sigh::
For those of you who've just tuned in: a self-appointed group of pedophile-hunters has been reporting to LJ a variety of comms and journals that list "pedophilia" and other buzzwords in their interests. LJ has apparently been suspending those comms and journals without notice. While they are capturing a number of honest-to-god pedophilia communities (ewww!), they have also suspended a number of fanfiction communities, RPG communities, journals of incest/abuse survivors, and one community dedicated to a slow reread of Lolita. Fans are freaking out all over the place.
On to the substance of this post:
In the interests of keeping the hysteria focused on the real issues, I've updated the rant on free speech which I posted a few months ago here.
The primary legal issue with regards to the current kerfuffle is that Six Apart (6A) is suspending comms and journals without any exercise of discretion because the use of discretion could make them responsible for the content their users are posting. It's the difference between the editor of your local paper and the guy who tosses it onto your front step every morning. One is the publisher and the other is a carrier: one is responsible for content and the other isn't. (Hat tip to synecdochic for reminding me of this the other day.)
Given that the Child Online Protection Act provides for penalties of $50,000 per day, I do not think it is grossly overreacting of 6A to respond the way they have. They have other users than fandom, and they are in the business of making money.
Please do not muddy the waters of a complicated situation by asserting that this is a First Amendment Issue OMG. It is not, at least not for fans, because no government agency has taken action. If 6A were to be charged with violations of COPA, as a publisher, they might in fact assert a First Amendment defense, but I wouldn't want to be the lawyer arguing that underage Weasleycest is not, in fact, obscenity before a panel of middle-aged judges--not even in the 9th Circuit.
This is not the way I would have expected fandom on LJ to get hit legally (and FanLib might well learn some lessons from it, with regards to how they're handling their own liability), but now that I think about it, it's not all that surprising.
So--who's up for a return to the glory days of listservs? ::sigh::