At 10:21 PM 8/29/96, Jean-Francois Avon wrote:
I completely disagree here!
Taking into account the philosophico-political context there, it *obviously* indicate a *complete* understanding of the nature of the net. It is you (the writer of the forwarded article) who did not either dare to state or simply recognize the true nature of a govt pushing such measures.
I am fed up of seing net users giving every would-be dictator the benefit of the doubt. There is no tolerance to be applied to that. There is no such thing as being tolerent to poison.
Why don't we start naming things by their true names?
I agree with Jean-Francois--most of the recent announcements by governments about the Internet actually indicate *full awareness* of what their actions could mean for the propagation of articles, the extradition of Net.criminals, and the development of a Global New World Computer Order. The United States knew what the CDA would mean, the government of Bavaria knew what the crackdown on "racist" Web sites and newsgroups would mean, the government of Singapore understands full well what their actions could mean, and so on. And it is likely that the "control" advocates in each of these countries (and others) are pleased when one of their brother countries announces new crackdowns on the Net and Web. Very few governments actually like free speech in all of its forms, and certainly the U.S. government does not. Sure, there is lip service paid to "free speech" in the U.S., but the list of illegal things to say keeps getting longer (just last week Clinton illegalized many forms of speech involving cigarettes--what part of "Congress shall make no law" is not being understood here?). As to why so many of the criticisms of such crackdowns use "weasel language," such as the example Jean-Francois disagrees with, well, this is the way the game is played. The alternative to "The government of Singapore fails to understand the nature of the Net and could do grievous harm to it" is not quite so diplomatic: "Fucking statists. Time to nuke 'em back to the stone age." Personally, if this crackdown in Singapore happens, I intend to post various anti-Singapore and anti-Lee Kwan Yew & Sons screeds to various newsgroups that Singaporans might like to read. Then, if the Yew Dynasty decides to pull the plug, it'll be to more and more groups. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."