On Fri, 15 Nov 1996, Bill Frantz wrote:
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 13:02:04 -0800 From: Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com> To: snow <snow@smoke.suba.com>, Dave Hayes <dave@kachina.jetcafe.org>, aga <aga@dhp.com> Cc: declan@well.com, cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Re: [REBUTTAL] Censorship on cypherpunks?, from The Netly News
aga <aga@dhp.com> wrote:
Let's stay on topic here -- John Gilmore is a censorous asshole for pulling Vulis's plug. The topic has nothing to do with the Freedom-Knights.
At 12:19 AM 11/15/96 -0600, snow wrote:
[This is a rebuttal to a misguided news article.]
Cypher-Censored By Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) The list is on Gilmore's machine and he can do what he wants with it; he can moderate the postings, he can censor material, he can shut the whole thing down. By kicking off an offending user, a list owner merely exercises his property right. There's no government involvement, so the First Amendment doesn't apply. And the deleted, disgruntled user is free to start his own mailing list with different rules.
Notice how, once the opposition is admitted to, the rationalization begins. Suddenly this is not a matter of censorship, but of ownership. Just as suddenly, the classic anti-free-speech arguments of "if you don't like it, start yer own" begin to surface. (Anyone ever notice how this resembles the "love it or leave it" mentality of certain American patriotic organizations?)
It still isn't censorship. Censorship, at least in my dictionary, refers to censor, which uses the word "Official" several times. Mr. Gilmore is not an "Official" in a government sense, he maybe in the EFF sense, but this is not an "Official" EFF organ, so that doesn't count.
Even more important is the fact that Mr. Gilmore did not prevent Mr. Vulis from speaking. No restraint on speech implies no censorship. Therefor Mr. Vulis was not censored. Q.E.D.
You all are perfectly free to like or not like what Mr. Gilmore did. However, don't call it censorship because it wasn't.
Yes it WAS!! He censored the mode and manner of the speaker. He censored the personal attacks and the rants and the racial diatribes! And that SUCKS! Gilmore was a fucking asshole for doing it! And Gilmore is the WORST kind of censor that there can be, one who censors a person's "style." -aga.admin InterNet Freedom Council