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From: lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: My suggestion
Message-ID: <36585@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 90 07:52:10 GMT
Sender: news@ut-emx.UUCP
Reply-To: lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 55

I'm not exactly sure, but this newsgroup seems to be about how laws
and computers and freedoms and such interact and perhaps how they
should interact.  If I'm wrong, please clarify what it's for.

Also, does anybody know what the EFF's stand on this is?  Are they
trying to keep law to a minimum amount of limitation, trying to
make strong laws that protect everybody, or just trying to foster
discussion to see what everyone wants?

I for one cast a vote for keeping everything as free as it is.
The internet is the best example of freedom of speech I've seen.
I can post about whatever I want to and say whatever I want to, and
you don't have to read it if you don't want to.  The amazing thing
about it is that it seems to have worked.  This experiment in (almost)
total freedom has led to the honor system of netiquette, which, if you've
noticed, most people follow.  Sometimes the signal-to-noise ratio
may get low, but it's still better than television or any of the other
information media around.  People respect each other without anybody
making them do it.  At least, that's true here on the internet.

I suspect most computer scientists will agree. I am concerned that
with all the look-and-feel suits and such, that the computer world could
start to lose the unique character it has and computer science could
become just another part of Big_Business (tm), with all its lawsuits,
bureaucracy, and greed.

As one person put it (in a discussion about lawsuits):
  "Doesn't it feel like the fun is just about over?"

Don't let that become the truth.



















============================================================================
"The beauty queen, clevely clad,                    Logan Shaw
 admires herself in a cigarette ad.                 lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
 Will she admit that all was in vain                ========================
 when the face in her mirror cracks like a windowpane?"
              -Elim Hall, _Things_Break_