Re: When books are outlawed

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 12:36 PM 7/23/96, Charley Sparks wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>Only outlaws will have books...
>
>Just watching the news here in Fl. and they are trying to hold a publisher
>responsible for a murder because they published a fictional account of a
>hitman and a guy says he used the book to kill some people.
>
>Would you give your 6 year old a book ?
>
>This is really getting out of hand.. Anyone have any property for sale in
>Idaho ?

Deranged Mutant posted a summary of this on the list. (News item copied
below for reference.)

You have to be careful to separate out the issue of "lawsuits" from the
issues of "prior restraint" and "censorship." There is no talk of prior
restraint of Paladin Press, and no Office of the People's Censor to which
books must be submitted for approval.

Personally, I think holding authors responsible for other people's actions
is wrong-headed. It opens the door to such things as holding "Hustler"
responsible for rapes, "On Our Backs" responsible for scissor attacks,
"Guns and Ammo" responsible for accidental shootings, and, of course,
publishers of "The Bible" responsible for various acts of sodomy,
bestiality, patricide, and genocide.

"They made me do it!" should not be allowed to be a defense in criminal
cases, nor should publishers, writers, and speakers be held liable for
actions of others. (With the _possible_ of direct and immediate
exhortations to commit some serious crime, e.g., a speaker yelling at his
supporters to go burn down a building. And I am dubious even here;
certainly holding a leading American Neo-Nazi speaker and writer
responsible for the actions of someone influenced by him, actions committed
far away, was wrong. In my view.)

Here's the item supplied by Deranged Mutant:

>From LI Newsday today, p. 18:

  Suit Follows Muder by the Book
  Publisher of how-to 'Hit Man' manual is blamed in 3 killings

  The Associated Press

  (Greebvelt, Md.) - James E. Perry committed muder by the book.
  Now the book's publisher is accused of aiding and abetting his crimes.
      In a case that legal scholars say could set a precedent in First
  Amendment law if allowed to proceed, a federal judge yesterday said
  he would rule in 30 days on a motion against the publisher of "Hit
  Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors".
  [..]
      The $10, 130-page book has sold 13,000 copies since it was
  published in 1983 by Paladin Press of Boulder, Colo., a small company
  that sells mostly through mail orders from its catalog.
  [..]


--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."