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- SEATTLE - In what some legal
experts believe is an unprecedented ruling, a King County District Court
judge presiding over a harassment case has barred a Seattle man from posting
any comments to an online discussion group. The ruling, which came in a
case before Judge Pro Tempore Marcine Anderson, has prompted questions
about the right to free speech in an electronic forum.
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- After hearing from individuals involved in the civil
case, Anderson issued a ruling last week restraining Scott Abraham from
making or responding to postings on the Internet site rec.skiing.alpine
either directly or indirectly, in person or through others. The dispute
arose after vicious electronic exchanges, known as 'flame wars' in the
parlance of the Internet, occurred at the site, one of thousands of newsgroups
on the Internet. Newsgroups are online forums where participants can exchange
views on specific subjects, in this case alpine skiing.
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- The genesis of the ill will was a ski trip organized
through the newsgroup in March and attended by many of the principals in
the case. The problem began after a woman to whom Abraham had given lift
tickets distributed them to others that Abraham disapproved of, according
to Jim Biesterfeld, a Los Angeles-based private detective hired by one
of the participants in the exchange, David Hobbs of Seattle.
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- Biesterfeld said he telephoned Abraham to try to set
things right and offered his apologies on behalf of the whole newsgroup
but was rebuffed. Hobbs petitioned Anderson to restrain Abraham from terrorizing
me over the Internet.
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- In addition, Hobbs referred to a continuing Seattle Police
Department investigation. The detective handling the case, Leanne Shirey,
last month sent an e-mail to the newsgroup asking all sides to calm down,
and last week she testified on Hobbs' behalf.
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- Abraham denied he had threatened anyone and claimed Shirey
has ignored evidence that Hobbs and a second petitioner who unsuccessfully
sought a restraining order against him were threatening and stalking him.
"I have not threatened any of those people," Abraham, 37, asserted.
"All I did was respond to threats and say I was perfectly capable
of defending myself."
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- All sides seem to agree on one thing: Exchanges posted
to the newsgroup wandered off into subjects that had nothing to do with
skiing. Some alluded to vile sex acts and threats of violence.
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- Still, some legal experts view the judge's ruling as
extreme.
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- "At first blush, it seems a little overbroad,"
said Robert Cumbow, a Seattle attorney who specializes in intellectual
property and has been tracking the Internet's impact on law for years.
"It's a very interesting development. I think it's fair to say it's
unprecedented, at least to my knowledge, to try to curtail online flaming."
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- Margaret Chon, who teaches Internet law at Seattle University,
said the ruling seems to be a restraint on speech. She noted that the First
Amendment is not an absolute right and that it doesn't protect defaming
or harassing speech. "But it seems the order might have been a little
bit broad because it didn't say he can't post threatening speech,"
she said. "It said he can't post all speech.... I've never heard of
anything like that."
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- Bert Hoff, a friend of Abraham's who posted news of Anderson's
ruling to his Web site, said his page has received 10,000 visits in the
past couple of days and also unleashed a flood of email. The page mocks
the ruling, asking "When is it a Felony to Talk about Zoom Skis?"
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