 | | |
 | ||
|
Mr. Hoffman: And you were asked about the chilling effect of the CDA.
Sir, it is your view that on the Internet there should be no regulation of content except for obscene content, isn't that right? Mr. Shirky: I'm sorry could you state that again? There should be? Mr. Hoffman: It is your view that any content which is not within the Miller standard for obscenity should not be regulated on the Internet? Mr. Shirky: If I'm going to be asked to render a legal opinion, I would say "harmful to minors" is the standard that I would pick, yes. Mr. Hoffman: Sir, when I deposed you, I asked you the question, under the obscenity standard, and I referred to Miller, and you said that was correct. Mr. Shirky: I don't think I said Miller. Can we check it, if I said "Miller" or "obscenity"? Mr. Hoffman: I think your deposition is there, and it is page 200, line 25. Mr. Shirky: I am sorry, where is my deposition? [...] Mr. Hoffman: The question was: "Q: Sir your view is that to regulate obscenity on the Internet, and at no lower standard?" and your answer was: "A: Yes, that's my view precisely." Mr. Shirky: Right, and if I'm being asked to pick -- I mean, my interpretation of the standard for obscenity" is harmful to minors. Mr. Hoffman: OK. Thank you sir. |
 |
Although all of this is clear to me and most people who really use this medium as part of their life, my biggest frustration was in conveying this to the three Judges sitting on the panel. This is a generation gap, not so much between chronological generations as intellectual ones. I gave up long ago explaining to my unwired friends that I don't work with computers, I work through them. There is a whole generation of people for whom a computer is still a box instead of a door, and although you can explain the network to them in clear and simple terms, it is like explaining driving a stick-shift to a 14 year-old -- you can have a perfectly sensible conversation about it, but the essence is lost in translation. In this case, the essence being lost was that the bar to "publishing" anything on the net has now fallen so low that it is not publishing anymore, it's more like having a conversation, something people do several times a day, in a manner more fluid than anything the world has ever seen. |
 | ||
 |  |