Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!bbn.com!rsalz From: rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Usenet access: this "fascism" nonsense Message-ID: <511@fig.bbn.com> Date: 12 Mar 88 01:34:37 GMT References: <1288@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> Reply-To: rsalz@fig.bbn.com (Rich Salz) Distribution: na Organization: BBN Laboratories, Cambridge MA Lines: 42 [ I took misc.headlines and talk.politics.misc out of the newsgroups line. ] Max Hauser writes: = Have computer hackers so lost touch with reality that, not content to = stipulate Usenet access as a job precondition (!), they now regard it = as a "right," and its denial as "censorship" or as impairment of "free = speech"? And, in an effort to prove that he is either unaware of the fundamental documents of the US,* or to prove that Max is write, Bob Webber writes: >There is no more or less a ``right to Usenet Access'' than there is a >right to ``life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'' There is also a third possibility: Bob shot off his answers so quickly that he didn't the discussion was limited in distribution. Max: = Oh, and I have a lot of friends whose postings would be welcome and = widely read on the Usenet. By the argument that computer access should = be determined by the value of the postings to the rest of the net, I = insist on obtaining accounts and disk space on athos and nvuxk. Webber: >I can't see why. So far, your postings have indicated no potential for >value that would merit access to a Sun 4. I can offer an account on >an Apple IIc, though if you would like. ... It is apparently OK if Webber decides who is worthy of using his resources, but not other sysadmins. The hypocrisy bothers me. However, Webber does close out his screed with a very trenchant observation, and proves that he can occasionally turn a nice phrase. It is unrelated to main topic, but I feel it bears repeating: >... but now that discussion >among humans is being drowned out by micro-computer binaries, one >wonders how long it will last. /r$ ----- * Title stolen from an excellent book by Lawrence Tribe; read it. -- Please send comp.sources.unix-related mail to rsalz@uunet.uu.net.