Defending Professors in a Defamation LawsuitA graduate student, Daniel Burnstein, developed an equation for encrypting information that could be used to scramble messages on the Internet or other computer networks. However, the U.S. Government has sought to stop him publishing or from developing software based on this equation under regulations associated with the Export Administration Act that can be used to prevent the transferring of data of any kind from being shipped or transmitted outside of the United States.
David C. Raskin, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah, faced a 1 million dollar lawsuit filed against him after he spoke before a local chapter of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation in June of 1992. During his speech, Dr. Raskin questioned the competence and qualifications of a Salt Lake City psychologist who has become well known in Utah for arguing that repressed memory in cases of grave sexual abuse has occurred. The psychologist sued Dr. Raskin for defamation, and his university refuses to defend him.