Jason Pontin responds

摘要

I'm grateful that the author of Principles of a Free Society (1998) should take the time to read my essay. (In his valuable book, Professor Epstein discusses the harm principle and its application to modern communications.) He takes exception to my willingness to accept "commercial injury" as a kind of harm whereby free speech might justifiably be limited. I was thinking of copyright infringement, defamation, and the divulging of trade secrets. I take his point that I failed to distinguish their differences adequately. Perhaps so, for a distinguished jurist. But I was writing about how U.S. Internet companies should treat free speech on their platforms, and not the letter of the law.