NYT: Parole Board Documents on Web

[Tom Worthington]

At 06:11 PM 9/11/96 -0800, Dan Tebbutt wrote:

>URL: http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/1108parole.html
>
>NY Times reporting controversy about New Jersey Parole Board making 
>docs available on Web...
>
>Seems very similar to the silly tabloid-inspired brouhaha about the 
>excellent AustLII database. If information is public property, why 
>should it be restricted to the stuffy confines of law reports?

There is a need to stop and think before putting "public" information
on-line. Those who originally decided such information should be put out may
not have had this sort of distribution in mind.

Another example is media releases, which aren't entirely public. If they are
going on the Web permanently they will need to be written a bit differently
(there are things people are happy to tell the media in media releases, but
not the public).



Tom Worthington <tomw@acslink.net.au> President, Australian Computer
Society, GPO Box 446, Canberra ACT 2601 http://www.acslink.net.au/~tomw,
Fax: +61 6 2496419
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