Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 3:32:05 CST From: bei@DOGFACE.AUSTIN.TX.US(Bob Izenberg) Subject: File 4--TV station and BBS registration Here's something that you might find interesting... from misc.legal.computing. I've enclosed (most of) my reply to the article's author. Bob [ start ] A local television reporter did a report on the 10pm news about teenagers getting access to adult .gif files on computer bulletin boards. He explains how many sites with adult gifs require proof-of-age (e.g., copies of driver's license) for registration, but some merely print a "you must be over 21 to register" message before on-line registration. No problem, except he then claims you can lie and still become registered -- which he proceeds to do on camera. Isn't this a violation of Federal law regarding computer access? The sysop of the BBS clearly requested identifying information, as is his right before granting system access, which the reporter deliberately refused to provide yet accepted system access? This TV station is getting a bad reputation for overzealous reporters-- a few years ago one star reporter actually paid for pit-bull fights that she subsequently reported on. She was ultimately fired from the station and charged with a felony. I don't expect things to go this far in this situation -- but neither do I want to sit by as the TV station implies it's okay to lie during on-line registration for BBSes. Any comments or suggestions? BTW, the reporter was Jim Benemann of KCNC in Denver. I can post the Station Manager's name if other people wish to contact the station. Bear Giles bear@fsl.noaa.gov [ and my reply: ] >To: bear@spike.ucar.edu >Subject: Re: Stupid TV reporter tricks In article <15091@ncar.ucar.edu> you write: >Any comments or suggestions? Work with the station on producing an editorial. Ask them what criteria they use to authenticate news sources, and what their policy is on providing air time to an individual who is immediately or eventually proven to have faked their identity. Mention that access rules for on-line systems, large or small, are often more strict than those legally required of adult magazines: A signed statement that you're over a certain age. The system's owner was complying with a tradition of law that applies to similar adult-oriented media. The question of whether the reporter's misrepresentation of their identity, which treads close to the phone company's definition of fraud, was justified is one that the station's news management is invited to discuss publicly. After all, they were presented with a policy for authentication that matches legal proof employed by related media, and they bypassed it. If the station's position is that people must be honest for a system of age-oriented access restriction to work, they're right. If the station insists on providing a clear example of how to defeat the owner's intent to comply with the law, it is hardly the system owner that is in the wrong. Take the editorial to competing stations if you need to. Of course, this is a lot of swimming upstream for people to do, and there may be a better way that I haven't thought of... In any case, I'm interested in hearing what, if anything, comes of this. Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253