Rich Burroughs <richieb@teleport.com> writes:
I have a suggestion for "Aga" and others who believe this sort of nonsense. Please do us all a favor and try to sue John. I'm sure that among all jack-leg and wannabe lawyers on this list that they can come up with a viable cause of action. And John has deep pockets; you could (literally) make out like bandits AND rescue "freedom of speech" on privately maintained mailing lists.
Such a case would obviously fail. John has the right to ban anyone he wants from a list that he is hosting.
Sure he does - I've been saying all along that John Gilmore has the right to act dishonorably, which he exercises. Yet the censorship supporters keep attributing to me the diametrically opposite view - that the state can force John to carry even the opinions he disagrees with. This is not what I've been saying, of course. John Gilmore lied when he attributed this opinion to me (as quoted by Declan McCulough). Only his honor could force him to do that, but he has no honor and no credibility. John had the right to exercise censorship on his private mailing list, which is precisely what he did.
I do question, though, whether or not it was the best way to handle the situation. As I have argued, the availability of end-user filtering made banning Dimitri from the list unnecessary, IMHO. And the list owner giving people the boot sure doesn't fit with the picture I have had of what cypherpunks was about. YMMV.
Same here - I used to have respect for John Gilmore, but now I don't. --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps