SixApart Forgets Censorship Is Bad

Tribe.net founder Mark Pincus went to Harvard Business School, not journalism school. This may have been the primary reason he was unsure if using a person's full name to recount a sordid history was really a violation of privacy, like Typepad told him. If he or the SixApart-employed author of a letter demanding the removal of a man's last name from Pincus' blog post had gone to journalism school, they'd both have known that in countries where freedom of the press is Constitutionally assured, that using Murry Gunty's full name is on the list of acceptable practices. In fact, he can use it as often as he likes. Murry Gunty, Murry Gunty, Murry Gunty, Murry Gunty. Yes, he can say anything he likes about Murry Gunty, as long as it's a matter of public record, all the way down to his home address, and as long as it is true. The name Murry Gunty, if there is a birth certificate, a Social Security card, or driver's license is a matter of public record, whether Murry Gunty is a public figure or not. Printing Murry Gunty's address would then become a matter of ethics, nothing more, which was the topic of Pincus' SixApart letter: I've recently been notified that one of your blog posts contains a small violation of TypePad's Terms of Service. The blog post located at http://markpincus.typepad.com/markpincus/2006/01/10000_words_on_.html contains the name "Murry Gunty." Unfortunately, because of the combined information in your post, this together with the rest of the post is enough to be considered an invasion of Mr. Gunty's privacy. If you could please remove Mr. Gunty's last name, then it would no longer be enough information to be considered invasive of his privacy. I would very much appreciate if you could edit out his last name in the next 48 hours. Feedster founder and Ookles-promiser Scott Johnson examined Typepad's terms of service on his Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark Murdok: