Hey!

In Holland the official reasons given for closing down MSN's chat are the proliferation of spam, porn and paedophilia. Microsoft's strategy to make their Internet division profitable is also mentioned as a reason for the closure, likely being the main one.
There's quite some news coverage, though in general the closing isn't seen as a very big deal. There are several other chat services, which are more popular, especially amongst the youth. To control the content on those services one often has to provide an ID, which puts an end to the anonymity of the user. This will also the case for the ("future") paid service in the US, Japan and Canada. Identidication of users, taking away their anonymity by technical or legal measures, is (becoming) one of the main tools of (speech)-control on the net. The US First Amendment, by the way, does protect pornography. Child pornograpy is excluded, on its own and as a form of obscenity, which is overall excluded from protection. The line between pornography and obscenity can be hard to make, as shown by past litigation. To draw a line between the two has a cultural basis anyway, and to call pornographers a pest is a personal, and not a legal qualification.

Rik Lambers

At 23:05 24-9-2003 -0700, you wrote:

Steve Jones wrote :

> Given the international membership on this list I'd be very
> interested in hearing reactions to MSN's announcement from outside
> the U.S. The news stories I heard about it on the radio in the U.S.
> emphasized spam and porn as being the reasons for the closing. Is
> that the reporting elsewhere?

Hi,

I'm in Singapore temporarily ( somewhat ironically, teaching New Media and International Communication) and the news I have heard/read/seen has emphasised paedophile/spam as the reasons for the Microsoft decision.

I agree with other posts that the decision is also likely to be connected to commercial reasons ( Hi, Microsoft lurkers - you can tick that box), I also wonder if there may be legal reasons, as laws in each country in relation to paedophilia and the internet seem to vary - eg we saw recently how Pete Townsend was caught up in a paedophile inquiry as a result of downloading material for 'research', and then there was the famous German case where the CEO ( name??) was prosecuted for trading in pornography - perhaps there are also reasons that Microsoft has identified which are related to the potential for litigation by victims of paedophilia/spam. The US first amendment, after all, provides rare legal protection (?) for pornographers/paedophiles and other pests ( netmarketers).

Do any legal experts have a view on this?

Collette Snowden

University of South Australia

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Rik Lambers

Institute for Information Law (IViR)

University of Amsterdam

Rokin 84

1012 KX Amsterdam

Tel.: + 31 20 525 3321

Fax.: + 31 20 525 3033

http://www.ivir.nl