It has become commonplace in recent years for travelers and patrons to post reviews about merchants on the internet exercising what they believe are constitutionally protected "free speech rights" that entitle them to post whatever content they want whenever they want, to millions of people. Prior to the existence of the internet, speaking to millions of people was not possible without having millions of dollars to buy time on broadcast outlets. At that time, broadcast outlets "filtered" the content to ensure it, and how it was obtained, complied with applicable law. Now, this "filtering" has become the responsibility of individual citizens, and individual citizens and merchants must realize their rights, and obligations, under applicable law. This is an instant replay of what happened a decade ago, when college students began to "share" (that is, steal) copyrighted
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