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Re: *Tesla list survey form is ready*
From: Alfred A. Skrocki[SMTP:alfred.skrocki-at-cybernetworking-dot-com]
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 1997 6:59 AM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: *Tesla list survey form is ready*
On Sunday, November 30, 1997 4:02 AM Barry Benson
[SMTP:Benson_Barry%PAX5-at-mr.nawcad.navy.mil] wrote;
> Hi D.C. Cox, All,
> Considering your concerns I wonder how all of the publishers of
> experimentalist type books and magazines (Popular/Radio-Electronics) survive
> this problem? Could the disclaimers included in these book and magazine
> articles be sufficient for our purposes? Can a library be sued for
> providing dangerous information? Why not?
Barry over the years there has been a general thrust in the judicial system
to "protect people from their own ignorance", the result has been more and
more irrational laws making people responsible for what others do with
their products and information no mater what precautions are taken. A
perfect example is the "attractive nuisance laws", you can have a swimming
pool and surround it with a fence including the top, cover the fence with
keep out and danger signs and yet if some teenagers came along with bolt
cutters and cut a hole in your fence, went into your pool and got injured,
you would be held TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE for their injuries. In the case of
the periodicals you mentioned, I don't think anyone ever got seriously
injured building any of their projects and that is why they have never been
sued. In so far as a library being sued, no to the best of my knowledge
there is no legal precedence for that! But a publisher or author in theory
could be held responsible for what they publish or write. There have been
many publishers and authors that have produced works that were totally
destructive and deviant in nature for example books on the manufacture of
drugs or things like "The Anarchists Cook Book" which could not possible
be interpreted except to be used for illegal purposes YET the authors and
publishers of this type of material have never been sued or held
responsible for the damage they have contributed to ( in the case of "The
Anarchist's Cook Book" the death of thousands of people including those
who died in the Oklahoma bombing)! The argument has been that the
information was provided for either entertainment or to satisfy
intellectual curiosity and that it was the decision of the reader to apply
or not to apply the information. So as you can see the law has been
applied irrationally on both sides of the argument, this makes it almost
impossible for anyone including lawyers to protect themselves for you have
no way of knowing how a possible law suite would be interpreted. On one
hand it would seem an incredible infringement on ones freedoms not to be
able to publish information about all types and sizes of Tesla coils, on
the other hand, one does have some responsibility not to make it easy for some
kid to electrocute him/her self or others through ignorance or intent. I am a
member of a number of medical and chemistry oriented lists that have
archives containing extremely dangerous material and all such lists present
the archives in such a way that ONLY APPROVED MEMBERS OF THE LIST CAN
POSSIBLE ACCESS THE MATERIAL. This may be a viable option for the Tesla
coil database as well. BTW I am NOT a lawyer but I did audit quite a few law
courses back when I was in college.
Sincerely
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Alfred A. Skrocki
Alfred.Skrocki-at-CyberNetworking-dot-com
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