Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!isishq!doug
From: doug@isishq.FIDONET.ORG (Doug Thompson)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Access control to future nets
Message-ID: <1191.23CE9236@isishq.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 14 Jan 89 04:52:09 GMT
Organization: International Student Information Service -- Headquarters
Lines: 59


 
 EH>From: hack%lock.span@VLSI.JPL.NASA.GOV (Edmund Hack) 
 
 EH>I am wary of "voting" types of schemes as they can be abused 
 EH>to suppress the 
 EH>rights of minorities easily.  I could see where Communists, Atheists and 
 EH>just plain strange people could be banished for having unpopular opinions 
 EH>and expressing them out loud. 
 EH> 
 EH>Anyway, there are my 2 centavos worth.  
 EH> 
 
Interesting. "I may disagree with what you say, but I'd fight for your 
right to say it . . . " (Voltaire). 
 
The idea of network police who could tell anyone that they could not 
say what they are saying it quite frightening to me. It's not because 
The jeff daffodils of this world would be silenced, but that we all 
would exercise self-censorship to avoid drawing ourselves to the 
attention of the thought-e-mail-police. 
 
Social pressure is cool. Write to the one who offends you and tell him 
you are offended. That works if you are dealing with real people. If 
you are dealing with idealogues, or people being paid to propagandize, 
it probably won't work. 
 
The custom kill program (I've written several that are quite nice) 
allows each user to avert his eyes or stop his ears. I'm very 
reluctant to even think about anything more official or more potent 
than that. 
 
Freedom of speech, and freedom to criticise anyone is really 
fundamental to a free society. In another week I'll probably 
automatically kill all msgs from Jeff Daffodil, but that only effects 
me. Other users can still read his msgs if they want. I think that is 
important.  
 
To update Voltaire, "I may kill all msgs from you, but I'll fight for 
your right to post it, and I'll let it reside on my disks". 
 
The ideal kill program informs the author by netmail each time a 
message is killed. Posters of pure crap should get the message soon 
enough :-) . . . 
 
I'm working on it . . . 
 
=Doug 
 


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