I missed this until last night when I was looking up California law regarding police requests for identification. On November 20, 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that bloggers and participants in Internet bulletin board groups cannot be sued for posting defamatory statements made by others.
In deciding a case closely watched by free speech groups, the court said a federal law gives immunity from libel suits not only to Internet service providers, like AOL, but also to bloggers and other users of their services.As I read this, I cannot be sued because of something that Rich Rifkin posts on my blog. Thank goodness.
"Subjecting Internet service providers and users to defamation liability would tend to chill online speech," today's unanimous ruling said.
Loose Change
I have been negligent in posting announcements about Community Events, but here is one that might be of interest.
On Monday December 11 at 5:00 p.m. DCTV, or Davis Community Television (channel 15) will show "Loose Change, 2nd edition". Below is a description.
You can also watch Loose Change for free on line at any time.
http://www.loosechange911.com/
Response to Rexroad: We need better government, not less government
Yesterday's main blog discussed the issue of pay increases for County Supervisors. It is my view that County Supervisors are underpaid compared to private sector jobs of comparable skills and expertise.
Rexroad blogged about it:
http://www.rexroad.com/Blog/tabid/78/EntryID/1447/Default.aspx
I mentioned Rexroad, but he was peripheral to the main point other than the fact that he decided not to take the pay raise—which of course is his right (even if I do not see that as a necessary gesture).
However, he made one point that is of interest to me:
"We need less government not more."In my opinion, we need better government, period. If that means in some cases more government, that is fine. If that means in some cases, less government, I am all for it. Each of us will undoubtedly interest better government according to their ideology and experiences.
However, the idea of better government requires that we have a system that encourages the best quality people to come forward regardless of their financial background and situation. It is very hard for this system to produce people like Lamar Heystek, people from modest to meager financial backgrounds, who can afford to get elected and are willing to sacrifice their free time and financial security in order to serve at very little in the way of compensation.
I want to see us pay our Supervisors commensurate to the time and energy they spend serving the public. I do not think that higher pay equals more government. In fact, if you have higher qualified people it may bring about less government since they may be able to find cheaper and better ways to perform the tasks set forth to them.
That is not to criticize the current members of the board, rather it is to suggest that we adequately compensate those who are serving in hopes that we will encourage high caliber people in the future who will be willing to serve the public.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
