Academic

Cohen-Almagor on Monitoring Websites to Prevent Crime

By Lawrence Solum

Raphael Cohen-Almagor (University of Hull) has posted Bloody Wednesday in Dawson College - The Story of Kimveer Gill, or Why Should We Monitor Certain Websites to Prevent Murder (Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 3, Article 1, December 2008) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

The article deals with the Dawson College Massacre, focusing on the story of Kimveer Gill, a 25-year-old man from Laval, Montreal who wished to murder young students in Dawson College. It is argued that the international community should continue working together to devise rules for monitoring specific Internet sites, as human lives are at stake. Preemptive measures could prevent the translation of murderous thoughts into murderous actions. Designated monitoring mechanisms of certain websites that promote violence and seek legitimacy as well as adherents to the actualization of murderous thoughts and hateful messages have a potential of preventing such unfortunate events. Our intention is to draw the attention of the multifaceted international community (law enforcement, governments, the business sector including Internet Service Providers, websites' administrators and owners as well as civil society groups) to the shared interest and need in developing monitoring schemes for certain websites, in order to prevent hideous crimes.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 31, 2008 (boomark / email).