Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: NIMC, Cyberspace, and the dangers of info control
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 90 19:42:37 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Oct01.194237.5002@looking.on.ca>
References: <182@netsys.NETSYS.COM>

In article <182@netsys.NETSYS.COM> niu.bitnet!TK0JUT2@netsys.NETSYS.COM writes:
>The recent note indicating how Sears/IBM censors GEnie may provide a warning
>for the dangers when corporate interests control information flow.

There seems to me to be a far greater danger when government interests
control information flow.   There is only one government (with many levels)
but there are many corporations.

I could even see a constitutional amendment forbidding government involvement
in the computerization of society.

Why?  Because in a network society, if the network is under the control of
one entity, we would literally be able to implement a police state in
software.   The push of a button could turn society from freedom to
oppression.  No armies would have to roll in.  No guns would have to
be pried from the cold, dead fingers of people who like NRA bumper stickers.

Make it so easy to get a police state and I think you could get one.

The network must be owned and run by a variety of private interests for the
society to remain free.

>A free and open democracy depends on unrestrained communication flow. If GEnie
>is, in fact, engaging in censorship, they might state this in their t.v.

GEnie is not.  It is Prodigy that is reportedly removing references to the
new fixed-price service of their competitor from Prodigy message boards.
(This is unconfirmed.)

Note that this is not censorship.  Censorship, which is the use of force
to stop the flow of information, can only be done by governmental and
quasi-governmental authorities.  If I were a Prodigy user, I would
dislike it, but I would recognize Prodigy's right to not provide
information on competitors in their databases.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473