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From: bagchi@eecs.umich.edu (Ranjan Bagchi)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Cable Censorship
Message-ID: <BAGCHI.91Jun26212644@hastings.eecs.umich.edu>
Date: 27 Jun 91 02:26:44 GMT
References: <2153@tamsun.TAMU.EDU> <1991Jun26.235525.2474@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Sender: usenet@zip.eecs.umich.edu (Mr. News)
Organization: Recreational Creationists, Inc.
Lines: 29
In-Reply-To: mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu's message of 26 Jun 91 23: 55:25 GMT

In article <1991Jun26.235525.2474@athena.cs.uga.edu> mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington) writes:
>
>So why is any cable company morally obligated to carry any programming 
>at all?
>
>It would only be "censorship" if some outside authority imposed a
>restriction on them.
>

	It's censorship because those who want their MTV can't do
anything because cable companies are exempt from normal competition.

	I would say, because consumers have no input on the
programming carried that yes, a cable company is morally obligated to
carry all available programming.  If they think that MTV costs too
much to carry, why not make some form of a premium?  Cable is all
about freedom of viewing choice.  And the standard arguments apply.
Customers who don't like MTV don't have to hit the magic buttons to
watch it.  In fact, they can block it out of the boxes most of the
time, so they can't even watch it by mistake.

	-rj
--
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Ranjan Bagchi - asleep......  |    v,i,j,k,l,s,a[99];
bagchi@eecs.umich.edu         |    main()   {
-------------------------------       for(scanf("%d",&s);*a-s;v=a[j*=v]-a[i],k=i<s,j+=(v=j<s&&(!k&&!!printf(2+"\n\n%c"-(!l<<!j)," #Q"[l^v?(l^j)&1:2])&&++l||a[i]<s&&v&&v-i+j&&v+i-j))&&!(l%=s),v||(i==j?a[i+=k]=0:++a[i])>=s*k&&++a[--i]) ;
					}  /* Osovlanski and Nissenbaum */
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