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As good citizens of a country Rackspace personnel also abide by certain rules and one of those is abiding by the laws of the land. The US constitution is pretty

As good citizens of a country Rackspace personnel also abide by certain rules and one of those is abiding by the laws of the land. The US constitution is pretty explicit about limiting expression and free speech so I can see how it could be argued that this is a free speech issue but that was not the point I was making.

tptacek 16y ago
"When operating a communications service, you must provide equal access to all views" is not one of the laws of the land. It isn't even a law that governs network television stations, and they run on spectrum borrowed from the people.
- strlen 16y ago
  To be pedantic, according to Supreme Court, states can pass laws that extend the freedom of speech onto private property; some states e.g., California do so, but they target de-facto public spaces such as shopping centres, not servers in a rack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Robins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Ro...
strlen 16y ago
> As good citizens of a country Rackspace personnel also abide by certain rules and one of those is abiding by the laws of the land. The law of the land very explicitly says "Congress shall make no law restricting..." not "Rackspace shall shut down no website".
- greenlblue 16y ago
  This is why people make a distinction between the spirit and the letter of the law. The point is that congress represents the people and if every private citizen starts censoring everything on their property well then technically congress is not limiting or restricting anything but you are left with a society that is devoid of any free speech.
  - strlen 16y ago
    > spirit of the law The spirit of the law, in the sense of what writers of the constitution intended is a lot more limited: not only did they specifically not want it applying to private property, they didn't even mean to apply it to states; several states had established churches. Fourteenth amendment incorporation is why is why the first amendment applies to state and local governments, as well as federal government. Some amendments e.g., second (The Right to Bear Arms) weren't incorporated until recently. > but you are left with a society that is devoid of any free speech You have your property, on which you can practice free speech. Find another managed host, colocate at a datacenter yourself or get a DSL line with a static IP. There's also public property: universities, libraries, public squares.
    - greenlblue 16y ago
      They also didn't anticipate various mediums of expression being supported by very few individuals and even as a private owner of something you are still going to deal with other people using whatever you own to express themselves in some fashion and if the government chooses not to limit speech on collective property then as a good citizen you should do your best to emulate the states best practices because after all those servers are powered by some kind of electric power plant that is supported by the people that are participating in the collective political process. Anyway my point was not whether this should be framed in terms of free speech and how a group of fear mongering, hateful, hypocritical xenophobes were having their first amendment rights curtailed but that Rackspace did the right thing by knocking them down a few pegs.

tptacek 16y ago

"When operating a communications service, you must provide equal access to all views" is not one of the laws of the land. It isn't even a law that governs network television stations, and they run on spectrum borrowed from the people.

strlen 16y ago
To be pedantic, according to Supreme Court, states can pass laws that extend the freedom of speech onto private property; some states e.g., California do so, but they target de-facto public spaces such as shopping centres, not servers in a rack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Robins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Ro...

strlen 16y ago

> As good citizens of a country Rackspace personnel also abide by certain rules and one of those is abiding by the laws of the land. The law of the land very explicitly says "Congress shall make no law restricting..." not "Rackspace shall shut down no website".

greenlblue 16y ago
This is why people make a distinction between the spirit and the letter of the law. The point is that congress represents the people and if every private citizen starts censoring everything on their property well then technically congress is not limiting or restricting anything but you are left with a society that is devoid of any free speech.
- strlen 16y ago
  > spirit of the law The spirit of the law, in the sense of what writers of the constitution intended is a lot more limited: not only did they specifically not want it applying to private property, they didn't even mean to apply it to states; several states had established churches. Fourteenth amendment incorporation is why is why the first amendment applies to state and local governments, as well as federal government. Some amendments e.g., second (The Right to Bear Arms) weren't incorporated until recently. > but you are left with a society that is devoid of any free speech You have your property, on which you can practice free speech. Find another managed host, colocate at a datacenter yourself or get a DSL line with a static IP. There's also public property: universities, libraries, public squares.
  - greenlblue 16y ago
    They also didn't anticipate various mediums of expression being supported by very few individuals and even as a private owner of something you are still going to deal with other people using whatever you own to express themselves in some fashion and if the government chooses not to limit speech on collective property then as a good citizen you should do your best to emulate the states best practices because after all those servers are powered by some kind of electric power plant that is supported by the people that are participating in the collective political process. Anyway my point was not whether this should be framed in terms of free speech and how a group of fear mongering, hateful, hypocritical xenophobes were having their first amendment rights curtailed but that Rackspace did the right thing by knocking them down a few pegs.