roundtable: Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal

roundtable: Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal

Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal

Terry Dugas (dugast@naples.net)
Sun, 3 Dec 1995 23:19:32 -0500 

Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 23:19:32 -0500
Message-Id: <199512040419.XAA09651@gator.naples.net>
To: "roundtable@cni.org" <roundtable@cni.org>
From: Terry Dugas <dugast@naples.net>
Subject: Re: Congress Brokers Censorship Deal


At 09:48 PM 12/2/95 EST, Tim Bass wrote:
>
> If ISPs would just require service users to sign a simple agreement making
> it a 'breach of contract" to upload or download child pornography while
> connected from their service the Internet would not be subjective to
> US Congressional Legislation based on media hype.  It is well established
> in the US that First Amendents rights do not extend to the exploitation
> of children under legal age.
>
> Tim

It's never that easy.  Child pornography is already prohibited by 
federal statute.  This issue is just the "beard" to hide the true 
motives - elimination of dissenting ideas.

And what happens when an ISP tries to "be good?"  Here is a summary from
Edupage, 12/3/95,

"AOL DROPS RESTRICTION ON WORD "BREAST"
America Online, which has been making efforts to police its own service by
purging obscene or vulgar expressions deemed to be offensive, has changed
its mind about the word "breast" and reinstated it as an acceptable term of
discussion.  A contributor to a breast cancer bulletin board had called the
purging of the word breast "outrageous and potentially life-threatening."
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution 2 Dec 95 F7)"

So, cowered by the [CENSORED] beating of the extreme right, AOL decides to
remove the word [CENSORED] from the English language.  Of course, anyone
interested in [CENSORED] cancer can no longer converse on AOL.  And, God
forbid, you should look up an obscene recipe for [CENSORED] of chicken in
the food SIGS. 

So too, discussion of that lewd activity the [CENSORED] stroke has been
forbidden in the Sports SIG.  And the military SIG has been crippled by the
elimination of discussion on [CENSORED] plates and [CENSORED] work.  Even
the bird watchers must purge their vocabulary of any discussion of the 
robin red-[CENSORED}.  

By trying to keep a[CENSORED] of the wishes of the extreme right, AOL has,
through classic reductio ad absurdum, exposed these arguments for the bust
they are.

Terry



Terry Dugas
Southwest Florida Public Television
Ft. Myers/Naples, FL
dugast@naples.net
http://www.naples.net/~dugast/ (My Stuff)
http://www.naples.net/media/wsfp/ (The Company's Stuff}

Celine:
"Quand j'entends parler de revolver, je sors ma culture".
-- When I hear someone talking about guns, I pull out my culture.

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