In article ,
Mark & Juanita wrote:

Top-posting with context removing sign-off fixed

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:49:07 -0600, "Jeff P."
wrote:


"Shawn" wrote in message
news:1106690652.763b30117bf733fbd25b7bebc69c2f52@ teranews...
Would an actual news article be more convincing?


http://news.com.com/AOL+shutting+dow...html?tag=st_lh



Man, that really is amazing. Leave it to AOL to decide what's good for you.
If they don't have control over it then you shouldn't have it.


Looks like this may be in AOL's best interest, once again due to our
overly litigious society and the fact that AOL is a target because of its
perceived "deep pockets": From the cited article:

"AOL's newsgroups have led to some trouble for the Internet provider.
Earlier this year, AOL settled a lawsuit with writer Harlan Ellison, who
sued the company for copyright infringement. Ellison claimed AOL violated
copyright laws because his works appeared on newsgroups available through
the service."

IOW, because AOL had money, despite the fact they had no control over
Usenet content (unless there is something missing in the above statement,
such as if an AOLien posted the copyrighted works and AOL failed to respond
to notification), they were still held liable for Usenet content because
they offered access to Usenet.

NAH. It's because AOL's lawyers were *utterly* incompetent.

Apparently they never read 47 USC 230 (c) (1).

which can be found online at http://www3.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/230.html

Harlan should have been laughed out of court.