Chapter 5: Freedom of Expression Flashcards
Anonymous Expression
The expression of opinions by people who do not reveal their identity.
Anonymous remailer service
A service that allows anonymity on the Internet by using a computer program that strips the originating header and/or IP address from the message and then forwards the message to its intended recipient.
anti-SLAPP laws
Laws designed to reduce frivolous SLAPPs (strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), which is a lawsuit filed by corporations, government officials, and others against citizens and community groups who oppose them on matters of concern).
Child Online Protection Act (COPA)
An act signed into law in 1998 with the aim of prohibiting the making of harmful material available to minors via the Internet; the law was ultimately ruled largely unconstitutional.
Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
An act passed in 2000; it required federally financed schools and libraries to use some form of technological protection (such as an Internet filter) to block computer access to obscene material, p-rnography, and anything else considered harmful to minors.
Communications Decency Act (CDA)
Title V of the Telecommunications Act, it aimed at protecting children from p-rnography, including imposing $250,000 fines and prison terms of up to two years for the transmission of “indecent” material over the Internet.
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited P-rnography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM)
A law that specifies that it is legal to spam, provided the messages meet a few basic requirements—spammers cannot disguise their identity by using a false return address, the email must include a label specifying that it is an ad or a solicitation, and the email must include a way for recipients to indicate that they do not want future mass mailings.
Defamation
Making either an oral or a written statement of alleged fact that is false and that harms another person.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Signed into law in 1998, the act addresses a number of copyright-related issues, with Title II of the act providing limitations on the liability of an Internet service provider for copyright infringement.
Doxing
Doing research on the Internet to obtain someone’s private personal information—such as home address, email address, phone numbers, and place of employment—and even private electronic documents, such as photographs, and then posting that information online without permission.
First Amendment
The first amendment in the U.S. Constitution that protects Americans’ rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom to assemble peaceably.
Hate Speech
Persistent or malicious harassment aimed at a specific person that can be prosecuted under the law.
Internet Censorship
The control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet.
Internet Filter
Software that can be used to block access to certain websites that contain material deemed inappropriate or offensive.
John Doe lawsuit
A type of lawsuit that organizations may file in order to gain subpoena power in an effort to learn the identity of anonymous Internet users who they believe have caused some form of harm to the organization through their postings.
