'What is a Web site?' judge says he's fully computer literate

Judge who said he didn't grasp basic concepts in an Internet terrorism trial now says comments were taken out of context.

The story "'What is a Web site?' judge says he's fully computer literate" published May 19, 2007 at 9:15 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Orion Blastar]

Luddite Judge should recuse himself

and get replaced by a Judge that is techno-savvy enough to know what a web site is, and what it means to have words posted on one.

This is the 21st century, has this judge been living in a cave for the past 25 years or something and never figured out what the Internet is and what web sites are?

[ben::zen]

Not entirely necessary.

As long as the trial is fairly carried out, who cares? This doesn't bother me, does it bother you that much that you feel obligated to attack a Justice?

[Marcus Westrup]

The Real question.

What is the legal definition of a Web Site? I think that?s what this judge was really asking. Is it any resource that can be reached on-line through a browser (FTP, email, etc.), or do you narrow the definition to just HTML pages? The law can be non-obvious about these things.

[CNET BITES]

brain-dead judges

WOW. A Judge asking someone else to tell him the legal definition of something. ***, Judges are supposed to write the legal definitions of something. No wonder courts are so screwed up. No wonder you can getaway with most anything in good old small island nations, the judges are still in the stone age, or is that "stoned" age.

[richardishere]

On the other end

It's nice to have lawyers being on the other end of the stick. We need more of this so liars, I mean lawyers, know how it feels.

[K.P.C.]

Any U.S. Senator . . .

. . . could have told that silly judge that a web page is that
doohickey attatched to the end of all those tubes that make up the
internet. ;-)

[fhharris]

Judges give definitions???????

Last I checked judge make rulings on contentions by attorneys. Definitions are given by experts in the appropriate field. One of the requirements of our judicial system is to make sure that the terms used in court are well understood.

If I use the term one's house, am I including detached outbuildings? If I say computer am I including unattached accessories? How about external hard drives?

When I say web-site am I including page hosted elsewhere that I include by link and accessible from an original site? Especially if I give no credit to any other author?

Any idiot knows....

Well maybe not!

[Christopher Hall]

It's not as bad as it seems

It's a common practice in law and classical debate mechanics to define words so that all involved parties are operating under the same assumptions. A "web site" is in many ways a broad term used to describe any number of things on this here series of tubes we call our Internets. A clarification is not out of line.

After all, it depends on what the definition of "is" is.

:)

[redraider89]

Didn't you see this quote?

"I haven't quite grasped the concepts."

That is not a clarification statement for the court, that is saying, "I, the Judge, don't know what you are talking about."

[redraider89]

reminds me of the Microsoft IE case....

Microsoft performed a coup because the judge didn't understand the difference between "uninstalling" and "removing a desktop icon" because as you can see, we still have IE integrated into the OS 2 MS OS's later in XP. The judge apparently thought that because she could not see the icon, it must be removed from the computer. Judges need to start taking qualifying tests to make sure they are suitable to preside over technology cases.

[redraider89]

People defending this story must not have read it

If a Judge asked what is a "murder" in a murder trial, or "what is larceny" in a theft trial, I wonder if these people who are defending this judge would be saying, "He was just asking for clarification." But to say "I haven't quite grasped the concepts" as it the article says he says, for this trial it is the same thing as asking what is "murder" in a murder trial or at the minimum, "what is a gun?" in a murder trial, where someone was shot.

This is not a clarification statement for the court, that is saying, "I, the Judge, don't know what you are talking about."

[rleon]

Better ask...

than pretend he understand everything. Or just say: A website is a
faucet in the net of pipes and tubes.