roundtable: Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal

roundtable: Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal

Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal

Paul Phillips (paulp@CERF.NET)
Sun, 3 Dec 1995 18:14:34 -0800 (PST) 

Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 18:14:34 -0800 (PST)
From: Paul Phillips <paulp@CERF.NET>
To: "Karl Denninger, MCSNet" <karl@mcs.com>
Subject: Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal
In-Reply-To: <m0tLz9b-000IDVC@venus.mcs.com>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.951203180417.2591F-100000@nic.cerf.net>


On Sat, 2 Dec 1995, Karl Denninger, MCSNet wrote:
> 
> If the ISPs out there had taken steps to remove (1) the bestiality and (2)
> the child pornography that is in the erotic pictures groups *every day*
> these folks wouldn't have had enough ammunition to pass legislation dealing
> with the rest.

This can be neither proven nor disproven now, but I disagree.  The usual 
stated purpose of this kind of legislation is to make the Internet safe 
for children (where "safe" carries the rather twisted meaning that they 
will not be able to obtain pornography.) This is impossible, and it will 
only takes one or two WWW sites with clearly indecent pictures to provide 
lawmakers with all the ammunition they need.  The ISPs are only one 
factor, it's all just one giant amorphous unsafe-for-the-kids Internet 
as far as they're concerned.

It has nothing to do with pornography, it's just the first step in the 
coming attempts at clampdown.  It's a lever and a very good one.  These 
guys know just how to get people to give up their freedom a step at a 
time.

The water just went up a few degrees and some of the frogs have barely 
noticed -- in fact, they're blaming the other frogs.

--
Paul Phillips                                 | "Click _here_ if you do not
<URL:mailto:paulp@cerf.net>                   |  have a graphical browser"
<URL:http://www.primus.com/staff/paulp/>      |  -- Canter and Siegel, on
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