Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site tekcad.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!tektronix!tekcad!ricks From: ricks@tekcad.UUCP Newsgroups: net.jokes.d Subject: Re: Re: Offensiveness (long article) - (nf) Message-ID: <96@tekcad.UUCP> Date: Sat, 5-Nov-83 22:26:20 EST Article-I.D.: tekcad.96 Posted: Sat Nov 5 22:26:20 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 8-Nov-83 23:33:45 EST Sender: ricks@tekcad.UUCP Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 57 #R:amd70:-406400:tekcad:10200004:000:3414 tekcad!franka Nov 5 17:39:00 1983 Thank you, everyone for your kind acceptance of the Bradbury quote. Now I just wish that more of you would take seriously the threat imposed by censorship of any kind. The note I am responding to has said that we must censor ourselves or be censored by others. My, my, my. I'm sure that any to- talitarian group would love that response. Instead of making them go to the work of stopping open communication, we'll even save them the trouble and the chance that public reaction might be bad and do the job ourselves. The next thing I know, a site owned by some conservative group will come along and threaten to leave the net until all talk about Grenada and El Salvador is banished. Later, along will come a publishing company and say that any dis- paraging comments about one of their favorite authors will cause them to leave the net until net.books is done away with. Soon all that will be left is nothing (I can't wait until that Bell Labs site in Colorado threatens to leave the net if anyone says anything bad about the work it does). If people cannot take a free and open communication channel, they are free to leave. I really don't care if Bell Labs in Colorado leaves the net. I really don't care if every Bell Labs site in America leaves the net. If the net is not free to be an open forum, it has lost the majority of its utility to myself. In fact I would go as far to say that one of the reasons I would work for a given company is that they have a USENET connection and I would look very disparagingly upon a company which would try to censor the net by extortion (be good little boys and girls or we will pull the plug). <> If you fools who work for Bell Labs in Colorado don't care enough about communicating open and freely with the rest of the world, why don't you just hire censors to scan everything coming in and going out of your site. I don't like to be put in the role of self censor because your candy- assed management sees something it doesn't like. In fact if you cowardly, sniveling wimps who work there let the management there pull you off the net without a very large stink, you don't deserve to be part of this net. Let your fears gag you - let your safe little jobs blind you - let your self- imposed filters deafen you - be safe, little, snug vegetables in your local garden. If we lose you it will be no large loss. If we lose our freedom of communication it will be much worse. I really don't see any other company on this net making such a stink about this. The management of the two largest news backbone sites (decvax and ucbvax) haven't said anything. As far as I know, the only "management types" who have complained have come from two very minor sites on the net. And as I have said before, their self-perceived importance does not give them the right to censor this network. Let them not pass on all the newsgroups if they wish. This has happened before and newsgroups have been rerouted. I don't think that one or two sites have either the right or the power to censor the net. The only people who can do that are you. LONG LIVE THE FREE NET!!! From the truly menacing, /- -\ but usually underestimated, <-> Frank Adrian (tektronix!tekcad!franka)