Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 2-Jan-96 Re: US calls for measures a.. by sameer@c2.org
Just to offer another story of the cluelessness of some people: I've been receiving a number of complaints about one of my users who has gotten into a flamewar on Usenet. They claim that flaming is a violation of FCC regulations. (Maybe eventually it will be.. sigh.)
This apparently is becoming a common tactic among would-be censors. One example involving a web site and complainants from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh is at: http://joc.mit.edu/attack.html And more on Compuserve... Excepts from today's Washington Post: BERLIN, Jan. 2 -- German authorities say the CompuServe on-line service decided on its own which sexually explicit Internet forums to ban its 4 million customers from viewing. In addition, prosecutors reiterated today that they never explicitly threatened CompuServe Inc. with criminal charges. The statements appear to conflict with CompuServe's explanation last Thursday of why it blocked access to 200 newsgroups. But a CompuServe spokeswoman repeated the company's initial explanation today, saying German authorities specified which newsgroups should be banned... Munich senior public prosecutor Manfred Wick said today that his office did not provide CompuServe any such list as part of its investigation of child pornography on the Internet. "We did not make any stipulations. It was the decision of CompuServe alone," he said. -Declan