At 9:59 AM -0700 5/11/01, Ryan Sorensen wrote:
>
>
>Who caused the action?
>Information doesn't cause action.
>"Timmy" produced information, whether false or true, it really doesn't matter.
>That was his only act.
>Producing information doesn't hurt a single person, ever.
>How people respond to that information does.
>
>Again, do make it quite clear.
>Timmy caused no hurt. The people who reacted irrationally and quite
>idiotically did.
>Tell me how this doesn't matter.
Just so, on all points. Some here would like to extend the criminal
or tort class of speech to include derogatory remarks, insults, and
"false" statements.
Speech acts are only _very_ rarely either crimes or torts. Very
rarely. Recent trends toward criminalizing and "tortizing" new
classes of speech should not be welcomed here.
--Tim May
--
Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
