Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill
From: bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: What constitutes abuse of the net?
Message-ID: <1989Dec13.105316.17987@twwells.com>
Date: 13 Dec 89 10:53:16 GMT
References: <37942@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Followup-To: news.misc
Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Lines: 42

In article <37942@ames.arc.nasa.gov> hettinger@krypton.arc.nasa.gov writes:
:       In rec.humor I read a particularly brutal series of
: sadistic jokes dealing with child abuse and pedophilia posted

:...

:       Am I right or wrong?  What constitutes abuse of the net?

Free speech includes the right to say things offensive. If it did
not, free speech would be a travesty.

With that aside, the net is not a public resource; free speech is
not relevant, except as in it influences the customs of the net.
"Abusing the net" can only mean violating some technical
requirement of the net. For example, posting those jokes in
sci.philosophy.tech would be an abuse, for without the separation
of topics provided by newsgroups, anarchy would ensue. Similarly,
outright advertisement would be an abuse because many parts of
the net have rules that prohibit that sort of thing.

But posting jokes, now matter how offensive, to a jokes newsgroup,
is not an abuse. Courtesy suggests that really offensive jokes be
rot13'ed, but a lack of courtesy hardly counts as abuse.

You were wrong.

: I have no wish to infringe an individual's rights but on the
: other hand I feel compelled to take action, particularly when
: dealing with sexual abuse of children.

Excuse me. Which children have been sexually abused? On the NET?

Let's be real. Those were jokes. J-O-K-E-S. Words in a computer.
Nothing more. To confuse words with their denoted actions is a
sign of a serious psychological problem. You should see someone
about that.

Note that followups have been directed to news.misc.

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Bill                    { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill
bill@twwells.com