>
>It is difficult to impossible to believe that Yahoo cannot understand that
>these groups violate the very Terms Of Service that Yahoo imposes on these
>"clubs." These terms state that "You agree to not use the Service to: a.
>upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful,
>harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar,
>obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially,
>ethnically or otherwise objectionable...."
I think that the problem for many (some?) (one?) of us is that we
tend to view Yahoo not as a private firm but as a creator and
maintainer of public space in which _Areopagitica_ should rule. Thus
"abusive... vulgar, obscene... invasive of another's privacy,
hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable" has no
rightful place in Yahoo's terms of service (although the "unlawful,
harmful, threatening... tortious, defamatory... libelous" does).
Of course, my view would change did I think that such "clubs" stood a
chance of gaining political power: neither democracy nor freedom of
speech is a suicide pact.
Brad DeLong
