Hi Steve,
Now I'm not a lawyer but there should be a way to protect the speakers and
the publishers of conference material from gratuitous lawsuits. I don't know
what Jay's area of expertise is but maybe he will know someone that is
familiar with that kind of thing...
Here are some things that come to mind: First off, SUNI and TU are not
public events and the material presented at the technical sessions is not
exactly public speech. People pay to attend and in so doing, they execute a
contract with the organizers of the event. Similarly, if I were to buy a
hypothetical CD from Tom W then that transaction is a form of contract, the
terms of which would have to be agreed to by both parties.
Here's another: If I were to say, in public, that Dubya is a complete moron,
then Dubya could turn around and sue me for slander, but he'd have to prove
the incorrectness of my assertion in court. But what if I instead said that
"I _think_ that Dubya is a complete moron"? In this case, there is no
slander - it's just my opinion, and the laws of free speech (in most Western
civilizations) allow me to say what I think, where I think, as long as it
doesn't cause undue public hysteria. I'm thinking that George Boskoff's
recollections of events of 40 years ago would fall into the 'opinion'
category by most people's standards.
Best regards,
Theo
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