Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!balkan!dogface!bei From: bei@dogface (Bob Izenberg) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Amendments Message-ID: Date: 16 Apr 91 16:56:21 GMT References: <1455@gargoyle.uchicago.edu> Distribution: na Lines: 42 learn@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (William Vajk ) writes: > A computer > isn't a printing press, no matter that we wish it so and no matter that > the possiblity of distribution far exceeds the capabilities of the presses > which existed in the days when this protection was wrought. My Dad is computer-literate like I'm a blue giraffe, so when he has to know something about his XT clone, the metaphors fly like frisbees. Anybody who's ever had to explain something technical person to person discusses the new concept in terms of things already known. So, functionally, Bill's box may not be a printing press but mine sure works like one. At least eleven hours of every day are spent retrieving and distributing information just like you are reading now. I use it to save information on my daily affairs, so it's part notebook. It's also part post office, because the electronic mail of at least five people regularly shoots through here. It contains the mailing list for a dance company in town, and distributes via email a quarterly meditation newsletter. I've named five functions that one computer performs right here in the apartment. Let's try the black box analogy here. Hand me a piece of paper with a message that you want sent to someone. I will walk into another room and send it, somehow. I'll come back later with a reply for you. Whatever I did in that room was similar to what the U.S. Postal Service does. If you want your message sent to 5000 people, back in the room I go. I may come out with 5000 fax receipts, or desktop-published paper copies, or just the usual vain hope that email sent here will get there without undue delay or disaster. Once again, courtesy of that room, most of your recipients had your newsletter in hand after a day or so. You gave me a single original, and five thousand copies went out. Just like a print shop. Each of the activities that my computer performs would have Constitutional protection if not done on a computer. It delivers the mail, composes and distributes both national and local commentary, and is used by several people and organizations to keep records and correspondence. This computer, or this "other room" if you prefer, should be no different than its non-electronic counterpart to a legislator or member of the judiciary. Is it? -- Bob Bob Izenberg cs.utexas.edu!dogface!bei [ ] "So young, so bad... So what!" 512 346 7019 Wendy O. Williams