Cingular Can Sue You For Linking To Their Website? > Junk fax laws

reply to gatorkram

Re: Junk fax laws

I can see how you could compare your website to a fax machine. Both have consumables (in terms of money). One is bandwidth that you pay for and the other is paper and a phone line. However you're analogy is incorrect in that the internet is public domain where-as a fax line is by default "private".

The difference however is that internet is public and a fax machine is private. Think of it like this. The internet is like public streets and the website is like a house or business. Some sites are like open shopping malls where you can go wherever you want. Other sites are like locked houses where you can only see a door and maybe a few other things on the outside unless you have a key and permission to enter.

Now, the fax machine is inside your house or your business. It isn't in that public realm. While you may know it's phone number and have the means to call it you must have permission or grant "public" permission (like posting the fax number generically). You also have the right to tell senders to your fax machine you do not want their spammy content. This is not determined by technology per-say but instead by law.

In the end law says you have to have some form of permission to send faxes to a recipient. There are no such laws (at least generically) to require you to have permission before viewing a web site. Based on this your analogy doesn't really hold up and you as a website owner agree that you are responsible for whom can see your website content based on your website configuration, not based on a set of laws (as with the fax machine).
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