At 06:45 PM 7/17/97 +0200, Name Withheld by Request wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jul 1997 frissell@panix.com wrote:
What ever happened to "de minimus non curat lex." The social damage
from a
misrated website is too trivial to be believed. Punishing it is like executing you for farting.
In some cases that may not be a bad idea :). But getting back to the original point, if I'm going to be subject to jail for mislabeling my pages (and how do you tell, given that some systems use a numeric rating? count the nipples and add the size of any erections?) then that would seem to be a good reason to move my Web site out of America. Idependent rating systems are a good thing, and we've talked about them here many times in the past (e.g. 'repuation markets'). A mandatory requirement for web authors to rate their own pages is a hideous idea which will simply move more of the Web overseas, helping to destroy the US economy.
Furthermore, if you have no smut on you page, but you link to offensive content (rated or unrated) somewhere else, how does that rate? A while back on a whim, I created a page that is based on a type of ambush humor. The link describes something in a way where you think you are going to one thing, but go to something entirely different. If they push something where you have to label everything for the most clueless out there, it will ruin the whole page. (I find the idea that I might get prosecuted for my Goth page absurd, but it is possible considering the clueless morons in power.) The page (outdated links and all) is at http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/goth.html . Something else... Why does the press refer to Gore in such terms that make him look like he is some sort of techno-nerd? The man is totally without clues. (I believe the proper term is "Connection to Clue-server refused by host.") The "Information Superhighway" that he was pushing was a souped-up cable system for Ghod's sake! (The extra bandwidth was going to be used by starting movies every 10-15 minutes instead of having to wait.) The hearings on that were high clueless theatre... Maybe Declan can due an article on how far removed Gore really is from the process. (But that might offend his corporate masters...) --- | "That'll make it hot for them!" - Guy Grand | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan@ctrl-alt-del.com|