-=> August Abolins wrote to Daniel <=-

 AA> On 4/24/2020 4:02 AM, between "Daniel : Kurt Weiske":

 Da>> Downloading it now from bottomless abyss bbs. I'll let you
 Da>> know how I like it.

 KW>> Wasn't Tom Jennings and/or Tim Pozar on one of the
 KW>> episodes? I'm pretty sure they filmed in the SF bay area.

 D> It was quite an episode. ...It's interesting that
 D> the district attorney in that interview was already
 D> discussing criminal uses of BBS's even in those early days.
 D> It blows me away.

 AA> I thought it was amazing that a lawyer contributed some "concerns" back
 AA> then too.

 AA> But today, liability on the "provider" has been actually reduced based
 AA> on a recent story I read somewhere. I will try to dig it up.
 AA> Meanwhile, the judge opined that since no one actually reads the User
 AA> Agreements (UAs) or that they are too long, or that they are hard to
 AA> locate, dismisses the liability of the service provider *AND* the user!
 AA>  Maybe I am paraphrasing that poorly.  I will see if I can find the
 AA> original article/judgment.

Even into the late 90s, it was the provider's liability if users did illegal
activity using their systems. Sysops were forced to monitor user activity on
their bbs's. My sysop watched everything I did. Sort of creepy. Less than a
year ago, congress was threatening facebook adn all the other providers with
taking the legislation away. The speaker said they were taking advantage of the
law and it can be taken away. I thought it was funny as if she was sitting on
top fo the government and was holding all the power. That threat fell flat. But
anyway, the late 90s gave the provider relief from this liability.


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