IP: Utah arrests student publisher, plans to charge criminal libel

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 12:48:32 -0400
> To: politech () vorlon mit edu
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
>
> [Let me see if I get this right. A California teenager is transplanted to 
> Utah and doesn't quite fit in at his new school. Some of his enemies set 
> up a web site. He replies with his own anonymous site, praising some 
> teachers and students and denouncing others. In response, the Utah police 
> raid his home, put him in jail for seven days, and now plan to charge him 
> with criminal libel. This notwithstanding the fact that one of the most 
> celebrated cases in U.S. legal history dealt with how Peter Zenger escaped 
> criminal libel charges. --Declan]
>
> **********
>
> My article on a very similar 1997 case dealing with criminal libel charges 
> brought against high school students:
> http://www.time.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,12129,00.html
>
> Slashdot thread:
> http://slashdot.org/features/00/06/01/1526235.shtml
>
> Zenger case background:
> http://www.sar.org/newslett/Zenger.txt
>
> *********
>
> http://www.sltrib.com/05282000/utah/52983.htm
>
> Salt Lake Tribune
> By Joe Baird
>
>    MILFORD Ian Michael Lake didn't fit in this southwest Utah
> railroad town. On that everyone in this close-knit community of
> 1,500 can agree. And most believe the Milford High School junior
> crossed a line when he posted a Web site disparaging faculty
> members and classmates in graphically vulgar terms.
>     But there is serious and, perhaps, litigious disagreement
> developing over how he became marginalized and whether Lake's
> inflammatory home page merited the seizure of his home computer
> and seven nights in a juvenile detention facility. There is also the
> question of the constitutionality of criminal libel charges he may
> soon face.
>
> [...]
>
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