Media Nation reader J.H. passes along word from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that the MIT gag order has been lifted. U.S. District Judge George O’Toole reportedly found that the MBTA is unlikely to prevail in its lawsuit against three MIT students and the university itself.
Background on the case here and here.
Although this is clearly better than not lifting the gag order, it’s also not much of a victory for the First Amendment. The fact is that the MIT students had every right to make their presentation on flaws in the MBTA’s electronic fare system, and they were not allowed to do so.
It makes a mockery of the principle that prior restraint is to be reserved only for serious issues of national security, obscenity and incitement to violence.
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Dan: I’m sorry for going off topic, but does your blog template allow for the comment line to be modified to indicate when a reader comes to a discussion thread that has had new comments added since they last visited, such as Blue Mass Group does?
Acf: No. That’s pretty fancy stuff. Blue Mass Group is built on a customizable platform. It’s a great feature, but one that’s beyond my capability to provide with Blogger … or even with WordPress.com, should I ever switch to that.