

Surviving the Age of Humiliation - grellas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703612804575222580214035638.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5

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jacquesm
> "But one of these days, someone will launch a comprehensive lawsuit, and a
> jury will say that an Internet provider like Google is liable," he predicts.
> "Sooner or later, an Internet provider will pay a massive price" for
> spreading malicious gossip.

How is that possible? Can juries override safe harbour provisions?

Google has already been sued (in Italy) over something like this, and the
outrage about that conviction was fairly universal iirc.

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r0s
Bad litigation trips through courts all the time, it's not a deal breaker on
justice, it's par for the course.

 _an Internet provider like Google_

Seriously now, this guy is pretty confused. Just as many litigants, juries and
judges must also be when bruised egos and high technology collide in a
courtroom.

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jacquesm
I think he meant to say 'internet service provider', and even if I associate
that with companies providing access technically speaking Google is an ISP and
things like youtube are 'internet services'.

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/your-new-
isp...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/your-new-isp-google-
launches-1gbps-fiber-to-the-home-trial.ars)

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alanh
But I thought we weren't embarrassed anymore?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1322721>

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pmccool
An interesting thing the article doesn't mention is the effect of anonymity on
malicious gossip. The ability to publish widely and anonymously with such ease
is unprecedented. Is it not that society's getting nastier, but that it's so
much easier to be nasty and get away with it?

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devinj
Surely the ability to be nasty and get away with it encourages nastiness by
removing the negative reinforcement towards being "nice", thus making society
nastier?

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pmccool
I hadn't thought of it that way. I had thought of it as additional opportunity
for the same amount of nastiness to manifest itself.

~~~
jamesbritt
Reminds me of a line from King of the Hill, when Minh Souphanousinphone is a
bit too blunt with Peggy Hill, Minh apologizes by saying, "Oh, I'm sorry, I
said something out loud that I should have only thought."

There's a lot more "out loud" when the cost is so low. I half hope it leads to
people becoming more critical about who they let get under their skin, and
more critical in what they believe from random sources, but I'm not
optimistic.

