New Jersey & Free Speech

[swaroop]

New Jersey & Free Speech

A New Jersey state judge, James Hurley, has made international news with his recent decision to shut down three websites dedicated to the debate on the H1-B visa situation in America. H1-B is a visa that allows companies in America to import workers from other countries to fill positions that cannot be filled by American workers. These jobs usually require a specialized skill, but the categories have become so all encompassing that to list them here would be impractical.

Many of the positions filled are in the technology industry, and increasingly the health industry, but all are normally considered higher paid positions. Critics of the program claim H-1B visas are used to bring in foreign workers and artificially keep wages lower. Claims of fraud were confirmed with a government report in 2008 that showed a 20 percent violation rate amongst employers exploiting the H-1B visa program.

The debate on the pros and cons of the H1-B visa program is ongoing in Congress as it decides whether to expand the program to allow for an additional 300,000 work visas. While part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would provide additional bureaucracy to assure compliance, congressional representatives are concerned with voter perception of allowing more workers into a country while unemployment steadily hovers at 10%. The alleged H1-B abuses by Apex Technology are aggravated by their promotion of off-shore outsourcing in which they promise ” …IT staff at a fraction of the cost of a US employee”.

http://endh1b2.com/Web/blogs/endh1b/archive/2010/01/13/new-jersey-amp-free-speech.aspx

[FormerDittoHead]

1. Liable and trade secret violation is not protected speech.

I'm a webmaster, so I'm sensitive about such issues, and I contribute to the EFF, which your post eventually links to:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/order-shut-down-websites-critical-apex-technology-

In the interest of full disclosure, I also think the H1-B policy should be revisited, as I happen to, indeed, think it's used to keep skilled worker wages down.

The fact is that the issue at at hand is NOT some posts on some BBS, which the webmasters failed to delete. Rather, it was things which the webmaster(s) themselves were stating which were, indeed, defamatory and if true, criminal about the plaintiff.

You can say someone "sucks" and they're "wrong" about something, but you, the webmaster, can't post private, internal documents (I'm sure there was some non-disclosure agreement?) and then charge H1-B companies of "fraud", fraud being both a civil violation and crime.

I'm actually for the side of the webmasters here, but not the way they conducted themselves.

I don't like playing a lawyer when it's "just us" talking, and I understand wanting to get people's attention by being sensational.

But when you post something on a website you simply have to give yourself some weasel room, and it seems these guys didn't get that.

[DainBramaged]

2. He's out of a job, so maybe his reign of terror in family court is over

Retiring.