Judge to prosecutor: So what's a Web site?

[CK_John]

Source: Reuters Mark Trevelyan

LONDON - A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet.

Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals.

"The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18702311/

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An honest judge.

[LiberalFighter]

1. How could anyone not know what is a website?

Next thing he will say he never heard of a newspaper.

[CK_John]

2. Many of my friends, late 60's and 70's do not know a thing about

computers, expect they are expensive. I would say that 70% of US judges would not know.

[iconoclastic cat]

7. And $400 isn't even all that expensive!

Granted, a jackass at Best Buy might be able push a customer into shelling out a 1K for a PC, and Macs are still both proprietary and expensive, but a savvy friend and a computer wholesaler like Microcenter can put together a nice system for $400.

[LiberalFighter]

11. Each District and Court of Appeals in US have websites

I am sure that the judges would have to know that their opinions were posted on their website.

The judges here in the US that may have less awareness would be the senior judges.

[OnyxCollie]

3. Maybe Ted Stevens can explain the Intertubes to him. nt

[nosmokes]

4. the defendants are bound to get a fair trial...

:sarcasm:

[intaglio]

5. This is an old judicial tactic

and, I was told by a barrister, is often used in jury trials where the judge knows or suspects that jury members do not understand a concept or idea; though sometimes it is ignorance.

Consider this - what is a website? Try to explain the concept and the mechanisms in simple language because it is quite difficult. Although most people in the UK use the internet there are very few who understand what they are doing - it an interactive television.

[Orsino]

6. And in any case, it's best to make the prosecution and defense...

...clearly define their terms, and prove that they understand them.

[kskiska]

8. David Boies represented Napster

and kept mispronouncing "login" as "lodge-in," revealing that he'd known little about computers but had read up on them for the case.

[slackmaster]

10. I was a juror on a criminal trial in which the prosecutor was a former professional football player

He constantly referred to his adversary as "counsel for the DE-fense".

We jurors had a very hard time not laughing out loud.

[Jacobin]

12. Boies has severe dyslexia

which he has overcome astonishingly well. Bits of it still creep out, as you mention.

[slackmaster]

9. It's perfectly reasonable for a judge to ask for terms to be defined

The definition can be provided by an expert witness, or the two sides (attorneys) can stipulate a particular definition to be applied in the context of the proceedings.

There are a lot of people in the general population who don't know what a Web site is. Openly agreeing on a definition ensures that jurors all are speaking the same language.

I'm reasonably articulate, have about nine years' experience working on Web sites professionally on top of many years of systems analysis and technical writing. I'd have a hell of a time explaining the concept of "Web site" to someone who had no clue.

[Posteritatis]

13. To be fair...

My initial reaction to this was more "Uhhh, wtf?" just like most other people's. Thinking about it more, though, the guy (A) realized he didn't know something, or at least a formal and specific definition of it; (B) admitted as much and requested clarification, and (C) continued a back-and-forth with those present until (as I gather from some other coverage of this) he was satisfied with the explanation.

Ignorance bothers me, especially in otherwise highly-educated people, but one of the marks of Having A Clue is knowing when you're ignorant about something important and fixing that as quickly as possible. I'm surprised that there's many people in any developed country who don't know what the difference between a 'website' and a 'forum' is, but I'll give this guy credit for noticing and mending the gap in his knowledge.

(And hey, if he is that ignorant about the Web, it at least means he isn't consumed by all the idiotic FUD about it...)