Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Common carrier Usenet?
Message-ID: <13119@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 29 Oct 90 09:36:07 GMT
References: <6657@sugar.hackercorp.com> <43541@sequent.UUCP> <1343:Oct801:36:3590@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Organization: Cygnus Support, Palo Alto
Lines: 36

brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) wrote:
> Wtf is wrong with USENET being a common carrier? It looks like it will
> eventually become a common carrier, legally. That status makes sense and
> ensures the privacy that people want. Mail fraud and wire fraud laws are
> quite effective without a central censor.

Being a common carrier is tough.  You have to provide service to anybody who
wants it.  You are severely regulated by the government.  Your 'rate of return'
(how much money you can make) is directly set by a government agency.

Besides, the Usenet is not an organization or a company.  If you could make
the Usenet a common carrier, would I, the owner of hoptoad, be bound by all
the common carrier rules?  I know there's little of the Constitution left,
and the taking of private property by the government is routinely done,
but I somehow had the impression I could choose what users would have accounts
on my own system, and who I set up uucp links to at my own expense.

> > So if for example I was notified by a user that some child molesters (Is
> > it really true about a child molestation BBS in Portland?  I kind of assumed
> > it was an urban legend.) were secretly using comp.protocols.tcpip.eniac
> > with a distribution of "local" as a means of conspiring to abuse children,
> > I would call the cops.
> 
> Sure. And if I were nosy and discovered that the National Enquirer is
> really a front for drug dealers, I'd call the cops.

Who are you guys, anyway?  Do you phone in the license numbers of cars
you see speeding, too?  Leave hassling the other citizens to the cops,
they do it so well already, and just lead your own life.  (On the other
hand, I *do* support calling in the license numbers of *COPS* you see
speeding.  It's the one good use I've found for a cellular phone.
Nine times out of ten they aren't chasing anybody, they just think they're
above the law.)
-- 
John Gilmore      {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu        gnu@toad.com
Just say no to thugs.  The ones who lock up innocent drug users come to mind.