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From: mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: Towards making hosts and their admin free from a criminal offence
Message-ID: <20663@styx.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-May-86 00:38:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: styx.20663
Posted: Mon May 19 00:38:30 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 20-May-86 07:05:15 EDT
References: <611@bu-cs.UUCP> <164@comp.lancs.ac.uk>
Reply-To: mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch)
Distribution: net
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore CA
Lines: 38

In article <164@comp.lancs.ac.uk> craig@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Craig Wylie) writes:
> . . .
> There are countries, such as France, with a very different set of laws
> from those used in the USA. It is I believe illegal to send personal
> details across French borders by Electronic means. Although I don't agree
> with this rule it wasn't passed by the French legislature as a personal
> challange to every other country in the world. They did it as the elected
> officials of their country. I'm sure you wouldn't dispute their right to
> do this.

Uh, I say, old boy, just what *are* "personal details"? Is this a Britishism 
like lift (vs. elevator) and lorry (vs. truck)? "Personal details" sounds 
like a euphemism for something ... please let us North Americans in on it!

> Simply because your actions aren't illegal where they are perpetrated
> dosen't mean that you shouldn't consider their legality in all the places
> where they are manifest.
> 
> The concept of 
> 
> 	"I'll do what I like because I'm bigger than you and you
> 	 can't get me"
> 
> has always been the cry of the bully and lout, these concepts 
> are out of place in an educated environment.

Oh, balderdash. Mr. Shein's hostility toward self-censorship, which I
share, is rooted not in "might makes right" but in the special place 
that freedom of expression occupies in the American soul. I'm deeply sorry 
that Europeans and others do not share the unbroken tradition of democracy 
and personal rights that we have enjoyed in the USA for the past two-plus 
centuries. But I'll be damned if we should let some brain-damaged French
politicians tell us what we can and cannot say on the net and what
subjects are legally proper to discuss. I'm with Barry.

Michael C. Berch
ARPA: mcb@lll-tis-b.ARPA
UUCP: {ihnp4,dual,sun}!lll-lcc!styx!mcb