If Exon had understood the Internet, he would have wanted to control it even more. Worse yet, his staff would have drafted a CDA more likely to pass constitutional muster. -Declan On Wed, 13 Nov 1996, Sean Roach wrote:

At 09:59 AM 11/8/96 -0800, Michael Page wrote and Rich Graves forwarded:

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We would attempt to send it via a Email, but the respected Senator does not have Email. (The Irony). ...

To Which, on Mon, 11 Nov 1996, I wrote:

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There is no irony here, Mr. Exon tried to control the internet for the very reason that he didn't understand it and one of his granddaughters did. Perhaps if he did understand the internet then he wouldn't be a threat. Remember, people fear that which they don't understand.

To which, at 07:57 PM 11/12/96 -0800, Declan McCullagh wrote:

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I disagree. I think people understand the printing press and still want to control it. Morality police are morality police, no matter what the medium or how well they understand it.

A valid point, and Exon may have had designs of media control the whole time. The methods he used and the arguments he stated, however, suggested to me, that he was someone who did not comprehend the technology. Those who he was able to sway with the dossier of .GIF's certainly were ignorant, many of them were turned by that one display of images.

// declan@eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan@well.com //