Thank the God of Your Choice that we’ve still got a few thinking judges on some courts. Slowly, but surely, the rest of American is coming to understand that there is no difference between speech from a mouth, speech on a piece of dessicated dead tree, and speech that is expressed in the Ether of the Intertubes.

Actually, it fascinates me to consider that “some people think” that I should be held responsible for what another person says on my blog. I can sort of understand the legal wrangling to get to that point, but at the same time, it just feels ridiculous to me. Or rather, I think of all the ways in which large corporations aren’t responsible for what people do with their products (guns, drugs, cars, etc.) and yet somehow, there was a question about how two strangers interact on the internet and the liability issues that relationship created. If I crayon “Jews Suck!” on a Torah in a synagogue, is the publisher responsible for “leaving it out in public” for anyone to write upon? If I go to a public library and write “kill all the niggers!” in every copy to Toni Morrison’s works, is the library responsible for that? Perhaps I’m missing something, but to me, the comparison between those examples and this case are similar.  Read more