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Re: Citeable ?
All,
I know I brought up the topic, but here's my spin on it.
This is a matter that is just starting to enter the courts. Over the
summer, I read a book by someone with the last name of Rose (the first
name escapes me), called "Syslaw". His main point is that computer
networks are like the wild west, and there is really no true law to rule
it.
The Justice Department is trying to reinstate an earlier law stating
that e-mail, on a federal level, should NOT even be archived because of
potential to falsify documents electronically. In the mortgage field, they
can not submit legal documents to where ever they are needed, because of
the potential to doctor the documents. What this shows is that if the
legal world is having trouble with electronic media, then CEDA at least
should wait a bit before we enter into the mess.
What if an esteemed debate guru came on line, and gave us all a nice
dialogue about counterplan theory; that information does have the ability
to be doctored relatively easily. While I realize that I may be jumping to
an unfair conclusion, dishonesty is something that CEDA has had to deal
with in the past, and as technology increases, it is something that we
will have to consider in the future.
I like Glen E.'s argument that ideas are free (this is what I got out of
it). If someone puts out great theory stuff on-line, then it is acceptable
to use it as an uncited theory argument. In essence, the listserve becomes
an online coaching service. In the same way it is kind of silly to say my
coach says this, and therefore it is right" in a round, so must
information be filtered, and questioned when coming off the listserv.
I do not think that there is a right answer to this question. It does
increase the amount of jurisdiction a judge has in the individual round
(do we see the formation of a new jurisdictional argument ? If so, I want
some kind of credit ! Hmm...the Emory Switch, the Wachtel Tech Attack ?).
If the judge allows on-line evidence, cool. It is the job of the negative
to make an attempt to attack the credibility of that evidence. For the
time being, at least, I don't think that's too difficult a task.
- Todd
References:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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