[Vision2020] Bill Moore - First Step Internet

[ML394]

My name is John Q. Public.  My name is the name of anyone who gets
talked about on this forum and has their reputation smeared on the
search engines.  My name is your name, Tom.  My name is OCCUPY VISION
2020, taking a stand against First Step Internet for promoting
slanderous comments on the internet and taking no responsibility for
the harm that does to real people.  

The truth is that corporations like First Step Internet need to be
held accountable for their actions and the use of its online
technology to allow anonymous smears of real people.

The Vision 2020 policy of having all posts tracked by search engines
needs to be changed.  First Step Internet can make sure that no search
engines track the forum posts.  Why do people on the internet need to
have access to the local posts on the forum?  That's not freedom, it
is slander with technology.

Change the policy.  Freedom of speech within the forum is fine, but
having the freedom to slander others across the internet should not be
allowed by First Step Internet.  All First Step has to do is simply
make the forum's posts untrackable by search engines.  Nothing else on
the forum would change.

On Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Tom Hansen  wrote:And your
name is . . . ?

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown

On Nov 30, 2011, at 2:16 PM, "ML394"  wrote:

> What I heard about First Step Internet is this:
> 
> Due to the way the forum posts are being tracked by Google these
days, anyone can come on this forum and claim to be a person who they
are not.  Anyone can say anything about someone else (even slander
them) and those posts will be tracked by Google and connected to the
name of the slandered person.
> 
> In fact, most of the email addresses used to post to this forum
could never be tracked or traced to the name on the forum post.  There
is no easy way to prove that any of the forum members are who they
claim to be.
> 
> So, if someone were to claim on this forum to be BILL MOORE, who
loves to steal money, commit crimes and wants others to share in his
life of self-debasement, there would be no way to prove that BILL
MOORE did not author the post.  And yet the slander remains online. 
And we all know that Bill Moore of First Step Internet is hardly a
degenerate.  He is one of the most upstanding people in the area, a
man who stands for freedom of speech and the freedom to slander
people, too.
> 
> First Step Internet assumes no liability for the posts on this
forum, but according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation hosting a
forum which enables members to slander people by name and not just by
their screen name creates a legal liability for the hosting company. 
In this case, First Step Internet is legally responsible for actually
promoting the Vision 2020 forum on Google and other search engines. 
First Step Internet is legally responsible for the slander its members
write about others.
> 
> The way I look at it, the longer First Step Internet lets Google
track the slanderous comments that have been made on the forum the
greater the liability.  And First Step Internet would be out of
business quickly.
> 
> While I appreciate how important First Step Internet has been in the
development of government-funded, rural internet access and the
development of Vision 2020, I am certain that First Step Internet
would be better off (from a legal standpoint) making Vision 2020 a
private forum that promotes free speech but does not allow search
engines to track the content of its posts.
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
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