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From: cos@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Ofer Inbar)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: NIMC, Cyberspace, and the dangers of info control
Message-ID: <1990Oct07.195311.9117@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Date: 7 Oct 90 19:53:11 GMT
References: <182@netsys.NETSYS.COM> <1990Oct01.194237.5002@looking.on.ca>
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
Lines: 35

In article <1990Oct01.194237.5002@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
>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.

Could you see a constitutional ammendment forbidding government
involvement in maintaining public roads and highways?  Does the fact
that the government has the ability to prevent you from using public
roads scare you, or make you think that the government will actually
use this ability?

One of the functions of the EFF should be to extend analogies such as
this to the electronic world, so that the government could maintain
our networks without causing fear.

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

The problem with private interests is that they tend to be driven by
profit only, and are not accountable to the public except in that they
need money.  Private interests scare me much more than public.

>Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473

  --  Cos (Ofer Inbar)  --  cos@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu
  --  WBRS (BRiS)  --  WBRS@binah.cc.brandeis.edu  WBRS@brandeis.bitnet
  "Good literature is about Love and War."
  "Junk Fiction is about Sex and Violence."