-Caveat Lector- Satanist Sues ISP to Silence Usenet Poster by Ashley Craddock 5:02 a.m. May. 20, 1997 PDT Citing a Communications Decency Act provision that frees ISPs from liability for third-party postings, a San Diego Internet service provider is fighting a lawsuit claiming it inflicted emotional distress on a pair of self-proclaimed Satanists. At issue is the plaintiffs' claim that ElectriCiti Inc. "breached its duty to the [plaintiffs] and to other Internet users" by failing to cut off an anonymous poster who has leveled accusations against Michael Aquino, the leader of the Temple of Set and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Army, and his wife, Lilith Aquino. Among other things, the accuser says the Aquinos engaged in satanic ritual abuse of children, child molestation, fraud against the US government, and "various other heinous crimes, sexual perversions, and crimes of moral turpitude." The anonymous poster, Curio, claims to have "worked in many facets of the child-abuse field for 10 years" and "seen all manner of atrocities committed against children and witnessed all types of adult games played to address culpability." The poster's charges about the Aquinos stem from an investigation in the late 1980s into allegations of child molestation and ritual abuse at the day-care center at San Francisco's Presidio where Aquino was stationed. Aquino, the self-proclaimed "Second Beast of Revelation," became a suspect in the case, but was never charged. He later retired from the military. Aquino now posts regularly on Usenet groups, where Curio insists on dredging up charges of abuse. Angered by the posts, the Aquinos first requested that ElectriCiti revoke Curio's privileges, then sued in San Francisco Superior Court when the ISP declined to do so. They allege that the company not only permitted "but has actively assisted" Curio's "hate campaign" by refusing to stop the posts. The Aquinos did not respond to repeated calls for comment Monday. ElectriCiti president Christopher Alan said the couple's claims are patently absurd. "I don't even know if Curio is one of our users," he said. "My systems administrator tried to track down Curio's coordinates and contacted Aquino with one possible forwarding address. As it turns out, we didn't have the right person. We still don't know if this person is one of our users or not." Curio's continued anonymity has put Alan in the curious position of defending First Amendment rights he might otherwise have ignored. "Even filing the suit has a chilling effect on First Amendment free-speech rights" he said. "We're a small ISP.... If I had known who Curio was, I might just have closed the account. I mean, it costs US$5,000 to $15,000 just to answer even a bogus suit. You compare that to a nominal user fee, and from a business perspective, it's awfully tempting just to shut someone down." Temptations aside, however, Alan entered the legal fray in the first California attempt to use the CDA to vacate a suit against a service provider. ElectriCiti's counter-motion charges that the Aquinos' lawsuit violates a CDA provision stating that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." "The way we read that statement is that it's illegal to hold ISPs liable for failing to monitor third-party content on the Internet," said Roger Myers, the San Francisco attorney representing ElectriCiti. "In fact, it's something the Philadelphia federal court pointed out when it knocked down the indecency provision of the CDA last year: Users' ages and identities are all but impossible for ISPs to identify." Myers has asked the San Francisco court to dismiss the case as a SLAPP suit - a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" - specifically aimed to curb legitimate debate on the Internet. "If this is not the sort of suit preempted by the CDA, I don't know what is," he said. A hearing is scheduled for 6 June. Copyright � 1994-2000 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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