Re: Internet Advertiser's Blacklist

Nick Szabo (szabo@netcom.com)
Wed, 14 Dec 1994 07:00:27 -0800

It's not mentioned whether the blacklisted entities will be informed
when their name is put on the list. One way to abuse the blacklist
is for a person to forge posted ads from their enemy and then send
the alleged post to the blacklist. The main way to counterract the
wide variety of possible abuses is to give the accused a chance to
respond, a procedure that is found quite necessary in jurisdictions
across the globe, and in things like credit rating systems. Also,
those who promulgate damaging misinformation might well find themselves
party to a libel suit, and one of the blacklists's enemies, such as a
blacklisted advertiser, could set them up for it. It occurs to me that
Canter & Siegal are lawyers. :-) Now a blacklister could
find a jurisdiction on the Internet where a libel suit would be
very difficult, but I doubt the U.S.A. is one of them. (I
don't know about Germany. Axel Boldt's blacklist seems to reside
in Germany, but he seems to take new entries and operate the
list from the U.S.)

In general I agree with the idea of Internet credit rating
systems, blacklists, etc. as long as they are accurate and give
the listed persons and organizations a fair procedure to correct
the record. Along those lines, we should also start up a blacklist
against government-funded political lobbying, which usually has to do
with getting more funding for that particular project or agency.
This is a common occurence on several newsgroups, is at least
at least as heinous as ads.

Nick Szabo szabo@netcom.com