Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester!bbn.com!nic!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!zippy
From: zippy@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Patrick Tufts)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Judge for Yourself
Keywords: Fact Fancy Paranoid Bizarre
Message-ID: <1990Oct04.001804.18056@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 90 00:18:04 GMT
References: <1084@lsicom2.UU.NET> <6432@hub.ucsb.edu>
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
Lines: 45

In article <6432@hub.ucsb.edu> 6600kntp@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Kent Perrier) writes:
>Can you say "Censorship"?  I knew you could.   
>
>Gee, the FCC sounds just like Hitlers SS.  How do they define obsene(sp?)?
>What I look at on my computer is of no concern of theirs.  So what if the 
>computer that I downloaded the GIFs off of was a public system.  The minute
>you allow one kind of censorship you have just opened the door for any(and all)
>kinds of censorship.   
>
>Kent Perrier
>6600kntp@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu

This is the slippery slope arguement (yes, I know all of you know
this, but hell, IO had to open with something! :-).  Of course, you
can say the same about anything:

	once we keep guns from some peoples hands, we'll
	keep 'em from everyone's.

	If we make this illegal, then what's to stop "them"
	from making this, this, and this illegal?

The point is, with any restrictions we must draw limits.  For example,
censorship _does_ occur.  Take your local public school library - do
you think they have a good selection of erotica on the shelves?  What
about the American Heritage Dictionary (defines "fuck", among other
slang terms).  While schools restrict their library collections, they
are limited by 'the standards of the community'.  A book that is
banned in one town can be accepted in another.

I'll let someone else flesh this out - I'm too lazy. 

Closer to the point of BBS's, I believe there is a law that prohibits
obscene traffic over phone lines.  Now (assuming I'm right about this
law existing), the problem is, who defines obscene?

We do.

No, you say?  The Government does?  Who elected them?

--Pat

-- 

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