I think that there are bases for lawsuits of a specific nature which probably work against the kooks. If you repeatedly committed acts of intimidation, you might have problems or if there was proof of bad faith or perhaps you used the net as an illegal means for obstructing justice and human rights. These all seem to be covered by the Senate document, but it would seem not to favour the kooks, but to work against them as you would have to keep records which corrobated each other. I thinking that if you look at property rights laws and laws about stalking or harrassment, and of course damage by libel or copyright violation you will find out what you cannot do without being sued, but it does not seem likely that anyone would engage in such activities. If you lost job or reputation because of defamation of character on the internet you would have cause for a suit, but that seems to apply to your kook. It is much more likely that governments and organizations which use the net for illegal practices like intimidation or human rights violating propaganda would be the first targets of lawsuits. After all, the victims will for the first time in history have timed and dated records of events they could never prove beyond a shadow of a doubt took place before. You cannot use the internet like you can verbal abuse as it can always be traced with ewnough persistence. I think that loss of job, income, reputation and freedom as a result internet messages will be the first big lawsuits. The only advantage the victims have is that it will not be your word against theirs but just a case of producing the offending document for the first time in history. You could do exactly the same thing with a tape recorder or use both if the problem is acute. I think the ciil liberties issue is going to be the same here as it always was and you will have the same old offenders. Plan on using a lot of money anyway fifty to hundred thousand minimum maybe up to a million. That's cheap if your buying freedom and damages from years of intimidation and persecution such as is the case for human rights cases but if you are just fooling around forget it. -- Paul. -- Dr. Paul S. di Virgilio, University of Toronto [log in to unmask]