If you run a bulletin board system (BBS) or a networked computer, then SysLaw should be your desktop reference book for legal questions. In one concise volume, the authors tackle difficult questions that confront every sysop. Within this book's 306 pages you'll find highfalutin issues like freedom of speech and privacy, as well as nuts-and-bolts questions concerning copyright law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and legal issues that might arise if you decide to shut down your BBS. In between are all of the traditional hot buttons, including kiddie porn, wiretapping, and electronic search-and-seizures.
The only problem with SysLaw, if you can call it a problem, is that many of the legal opinions rendered by authors are necessarily conjecture. Despite the self-appointed legal scholars that hold court on Usenet, there have been precious few actual court cases upon which to base precedent and create a grounded legal theory. But SysLaw is the best resource available today for anyone who surfs the Net and wants to avoid being involved in the groundbreaking legal cases that are sure to surface.
SysLaw, Second Edition, by Lance Rose, Esq. and Jonathan Wallace, Esq., US$34.95. PC Information Group Inc.: (800) 321 8285, +1 (507) 452 2824.
STREET CRED
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Your Own Port on the Net (Cheap)
Moving to the Rhythm of the Punch Press
Secrets of the Super Searchers
Law and Order on the Electronic Frontier
