tcmay@got.net ("Timothy C. May") sez
This is why I fear PICS. Democracy has run amok in the Western world, and the various "herds" will vote to constrain the freedoms of other members of the herd.
My Prediction: If PICS is used voluntarily by more than 80% of Net users to label their Web pages and their writings, etc., then less than 3 years later PICS will be mandated in the United States and other such countries.
PICS, or something like it, is the absolutely right response to calls for true Internet censorship. People agreeing to a language, a way of communicating, is a good thing. Did you object to HTML? TCP/IP? Other agreements that limited the way that people communicate? I don't think that PICS will be mandated any more than those two standards are mandated, perhaps I'm naive, but I think that the social conventions will work in this case. I suppose the a better solution would have been to have many competing private rating services, but PICS will work well, not put much load on the net, and is transparent and simple. I like it. thad -- Thaddeus Beier thad@hammerhead.com Visual Effects Supervisor 408) 287-6770 Hammerhead Productions http://www.got.net/people/thad