Operators across the country will suppress even adult conversations because they’re scared someone, somewhere, will see it.
Predictor: Godwin, Mike
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for The Raleigh News & Observer, Grant Parsons interviews Mike Godwin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online rights group. Godwin is responding to the Memphis case in which a California couple “who ran a membership-only dial-in online service were found guilty of transmitting sexually explicit hard-core images over phone lines. By sending the pictures – which may or may not have been obscene in California – the couple, prosecutors argued successfully, violated the community standards for obscenity in Memphis.” Parsons writes, quoting Godwin: ”‘I think that this case creates a grave risk of a chilling effect for BBSs [Bulletin Board Systems] around the country,’ he says. ‘I think that the operators of bulletin board systems will not be able to predict, based on their own community standards, whether they are obeying the law or not.’ The confounding part of the ruling, he says, is that it undermines what is basically a transaction that is not initiated by the online service. The materials in question were requested by someone in Memphis, not transmitted blindly to potential customers. The case’s effects could be felt far from Memphis, Godwin predicts. ‘This is just the tip of the iceberg,’ he says. ‘I suspect operators across the country will suppress even adult conversations because they’re scared someone, somewhere, will see it.'”
Biography:Mike Godwin was an attorney specializing in Internet issues and the outspoken chief counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the cyber-liberties organization in the 1990s. (Legislator/Politician/Lawyer.)
Date of prediction: July 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Censorship/Free Speech
Name of publication: Raleigh News & Observer
Title, headline, chapter name: Infestation on the Internet? Information Flows Freely in Cyberspace, But So Does Indecency: The Question of Digital Porn.
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=0F4ACEA8A2E8B59E&p_docnum=1&p_nbid=D54L55VOMTA1NDgyMzc3Ni4zMzE4ODY6MTo2OjE1Mi4zMw
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty