anonymous

Is Your Website Owner a Patriot or A Terrorist?

In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance. Think for yourself and let others do the same

Unfortunately, when they're in the spotlight they're subject to the brightest lights. One may not like exposes, which is your right. One may think it's NOT your or anyone else's business, which is your right. If I find that it is MY business, I can read about it and write about it. That's my right and my freedom. All democracies require I be an educated citizen and that I voice my opinion. As the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized, the Internet offers a new and powerful democratic forum in which anyone can become a "pamphleteer" or "a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox."

Asking if web site owners, or owners, is or are a patriot or a terrorist is a valid question. Asking if web site owners, or owners, is or are a patriot or a terrorist is a valid question because an open and free media is essential to democracy. The Internet is a common area, a public space like any village square. So far, it is the largest common area that has ever existed. Anything that anybody wishes to say can be heard by anyone else with access to the Internet, and this world-wide community is as large and diverse as humanity itself. Therefore, from a practical point of view, no one community's standards can govern the type of speech permissible on the Internet. In the words of John Barlow, a founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- "In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance".

FACT: America is still a Free Speech Zone. The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that ALL United States Constitutional rights extend to the internet. That includes Free Speech, Free Expression and anonymous Free Speech and Expression. NO website owner can set up rules that overtly or covertly violate the United States Constitution, or any America’s state’s constitution. No website owner can require overtly or covertly that a user must give up their rights to participate on a site.

You Have the Right to Blog Anonymously. You have the right to speak anonymously on the Internet. There are legal protections in several states and all federal jurisdictions.

You Have the Right to Keep Sources Confidential. Apple v. Does established the reporter's privilege for online journalists before the California courts and defends bloggers from subpoenas seeking the identity of confidential sources in more jurisdictions.

http://www.eff.org/issues/anonymity

You Have the Right to Make Fair Use of Intellectual Property. In OPG v. Diebold, Diebold, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, had sent out copyright cease-and-desist letters to ISPs after internal documents indicating flaws in their systems were published on the Internet. Bloggers establish publication as fair use. Bloggers are free from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits. So Tom Lewis of Broowaha’s equally asinine cease-and-desist letters are unconstitutional and thug harassment.

You have the Right to Allow Reader's Comments Without Fear. In Barrett v. Rosenthal, Section 230, a strong federal immunity for online publishers, applies to bloggers. Bloggers are protected from liability for comments left by third parties.

You Have the Right to Protect Your Server from Government Seizure. In In re Subpoena to Rackspace. EFF successfully fought to unveil a secret government subpoena that had resulted in more than 20 Independent Media Center (Indymedia) news websites and other Internet services being taken offline. With your support, EFF can hold the government and the private sector accountable for investigations that cut off protected speech.

You Have the Right to Freely Blog about Elections. The United States Federal Election Commission ruled that blogs can comment on political campaigns.

You Have the Right to Blog about Your Workplace. EFF has educated bloggers on their rights to blog about their workplace and developed technologies to help anonymous whistle bloggers.

You Have the Right to Access as Media. EFF has educated bloggers on their right to access public information, attend public events with the same rights as mainstream media, and how to blog from public events.

Know Your Rights and Prepare to Defend Them. EFF has created the Legal Guide for Bloggers to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger and a guide on How to Blog Safely.

Educated people understand the importance of civil rights, Free Speech being right at the top of those rights. So does the United States Supreme Court understand as well as several American state's courts. The U.S. Supreme Court and most American state’s Supreme Courts have repeatedly applied constitutional free speech protections against private property owners.

The first successful attempt to provide a constitutional basis for the protection of free expression on private property occurred in the mid-1940s. The United States Supreme Court determined free expression is protected by the First and 14th amendments.

American State Example: The California Supreme Court held in Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center, 592 P.2d 341 (1979), that the free-speech and petition provisions of the California Constitution grant visitors a constitutional right to free speech that outweighs the private-property interests of owners.

American State Example: After applying the Schmid test, the New Jersey Supreme Court reasoned that because the owners "have intentionally transformed their property into a public square or market, a public gathering place, a downtown business district, a community, "they cannot later deny their own implied invitation to use the space as it was clearly intended". New Jersey Coalition at 776.

Isn't that exactly what this site, and all other web sites have done?

Celebration your Freedom to Read! If it's NOT printed you can't read it.

[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct, that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas, that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment.

- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes; Abrams v. United States; In dissent; 250 U.S. 616; 630; 1919.

@ http://www.zillow.com/blo ... 07/07/05/, Zillow's own Lloyd Frink, wrote "We believe consumers have rights to open and transparent real estate information, for free. We believe attempts to limit or restrict access to this information are not in the best interest of consumers anywhere."

Zillow's own Lloyd Frink further wrote, "it is our goal to help people uncover information about real estate that was previously difficult or impossible to find, and help consumers become smarter and more empowered in the process." Yet Zillow regularly illegally edits and removes comments and articles. So also does Broowaha and it’s owners Alan Handwerger, Tom Lewis, Jack Bates, Tony Berkman, David Cohn, Ariel Vardi, and John JJFCPA . Smashwords and its owner Mark Coker also regularly illegally edits and removes comments and articles.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the right to anonymous free speech is protected by the First Amendment. A much-cited 1995 Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission reads:

Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society.

The tradition of anonymous speech is older than the United States. Founders Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym "Publius," and "the Federal Farmer" spoke up in rebuttal. The US Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized rights to speak anonymously as derived from the First Amendment.

The right to anonymous speech is also protected well beyond the printed page. Thus, in 2002, the Supreme Court struck down a law requiring proselytizers to register their true names with the Mayor's office before going door-to-door.

These long-standing rights to anonymity and the protections it affords are repeatedly recognized as critically important for the Internet by the U.S. Supreme Court and most American court’s Supreme Courts.

Asking if web site owners, or owners, is or are a patriot or a terrorist is a valid question because an open and free media is essential to democracy. Now a patriot is one who loves, supports, and defends one's country. A patriot loves his or her country and supports their country's authority and interests. A terrorist on the other hand, is one that engages in acts or an act of terrorism. Terrorism is the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons. Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. Terror is a state of intense fear, one or something that inspires fear, a cause of anxiety: worry an appalling person or thing. That's all very clear and straight forward to me.

That's all exactly how my family and feel from these web site owners who attempt to trample our constitutionally protected civil rights when we want to exercise our rights to express my opinion. All democracies require we be educated citizens and that we voice our opinions. That “think for yourself and let others do the same thing.” I think this illegal behavior, illegally editing and removing comments and articles makes Lloyd Frink, Alan Handwerger, Tom Lewis, Jack Bates, Tony Berkman, David Cohn, Ariel Vardi, and John JJFCPA, makes them all terrorists as an open and free media is essential to democracy. Think for yourself and let others do the same. That’s what a patriot does.

OPINION:

Q: What kind of person steals soap?
A: A dirty crook.