You, nor I have free speech on the domain space of someone else. End of story.
“... the domain space of someone else.”
You obviously did not read, or at least did not comprehend, what I said about the definition of property. So, rather than doing the work of learning something new, you’ve chosen to just repeat mantras.
Do you use a public email service such as Gmail or Yahoo? Or do you exclusively use a private-label email to a domain name you own? Because, I guarantee you that the vast majority of Free Republic participants use the free, public email services. And that’s not limited to us. The majority of people do not have their own private email on a domain name that they own.
If everyone went along with your position, Google could tomorrow start blocking any emails sent to or from a Gmail account if it contained any conservative speech in it. They could even neglect to inform you that such communications had been blocked because they are under no obligation to do so. Or they could even wait until October to do this in order to tilt the balance of a national election. Are you fine with this?
All of the major cellular carriers could do the same. They could decide to no longer allow conservatives to send and receive text messages. They “own” their networks. They should be able to decide what’s allowed and not allowed, right?
You do not seem to be very knowledgeable about how large corporations operate. But this is a very real scenario. You are used to hitting a subscribe button to receive text messages from someone like the president. This happens automagically. But mass text messages are carefully managed by phone carriers. They prevent spamming. If they did not, we would get bombarded with text spam night and day. Those who want to send text messages to an opt-in list must follow some rigid guidelines and still may sometimes experience having their communications blocked. Now, what if the carriers hire some liberal employees who decide, with or without the company’s blessing, to block messages from conservative PACs or news groups, etc.?
Your solution? Easy peasy, right? Just switch carriers. Of course this also means that all of your subscribers will have to switch carriers and pay termination fees to do so. But that’s no big deal. Gotta protect the “property rights” of those carriers, right? Otherwise, Jimrob will be FORCED to let BLM run rampant on Free Republic.
And what if all the major carriers do the same? Easy, right? Just form your own carrier and get all conservatives to leave their phone companies and join the new conservative one. I mean, after all, no conservatives ever have differing opinions do they? All you have to do is say the magic phrase “property rights” and they will suddenly see the light and port their numbers to your new carrier. No problemo. If they have friends who are apolitical and do not want to switch carriers, well, they can just get new friends. And if they have liberal family members that they still want to be able to communicate with by phone, well, time to find a new family.
Or, you could sue, right? Going up against a multi-billion-dollar corporation, if you have unlimited financial resources, will easily be resolved within a decade. And if you are living in a Disney fantasy world, a knight will ride in and save you just as soon as you write the carrier a harshly-worded letter threatening to sue. They will immediately cave and comply with all of your demands. You will be a world-renowned hero.
But back in the real world, some of us just want our fundamental freedoms protected. And the way to do this, again in the real world, is for Congress to get off its butt and do its job of protecting those freedoms rather than staying awake at night trying to think of some new way to steal money from the treasury.
Domains are intellectual property, which means they are created by an act of Congress. No one has the natural right to a “domain” name. Staking a claim to a name takes away the natural right of everyone else to use the same name (in other words, a restriction on speech). Congress establishes rules under the Constitutional provisions I cited in order to create intellectual property such as domain names.
Ownership of real property is an extension of natural law. Ownership of intellectual property requires the participation of society, whether by consent or compulsion. It is not based on natural rights. This is the same principle that other laws follow. The right to own and use a gun is based on the natural right of self-defense. The law that requires us to drive on the right side of the road is arbitrary, but it is the result of the right of people to form a representative government that can make such arbitrary decisions. If personal safety requires temporarily ignoring an arbitrary law, the right to protect yourself and property takes precedence. And arbitrary laws NEVER supersede fundamental rights.
“You, nor I have free speech...”
It’s a very dangerous thing to stake a fundamental liberty such as free speech on simplistic, rote sound-bites and apply them to complex matters. But the first six words of your statement shows that you are ready to quickly flush 1st amendment rights down the toilet because of >> insert XYZ.
Freedom of speech, press, and religion, as expressed in the first amendment, are such essential and fundamental rights that anything that abridges them needs to be carefully and thoughtfully scrutinized.
For you it is simple. Someone “owns” something. “Case closed.” “End of story.”
Your response reminds me of a child who stops his ears and repeats something over and over. I doubt you’re reading, listening, or thinking (which is particularly ironic considering the screen name you’ve chosen). That makes this a one-sided conversation. But in case I’m wrong, I’ll test by asking you one simple question:
Who owns the Internet?