blocking software & brock meeks

[Vladimir Z. Nuri]

sent this to Brock Meeks re: his latest column
I also ask cpunks not to harass these companies or their users--
it's a solution that's working.

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To: brock at well.com
Subject: cyber blocking software
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 96 12:48:49 -0700
From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri at netcom.com>


I read your columns regularly. outstanding work.

regarding your recent dispatch: please do not harass the
blocking software companies too much. they are simply based
on a different premise than the regular net. the internet
starts out with, "everybody can access everything". they
start out with, "only stuff we approve of can be accessed".

what their system shows is that you will always have disagreement
and controversy whenever this software is employed, whereever
subjectivity is involved. it is a very legitimate and worthwhile
service for parents who would rather "err on the side of caution".

but far
better to have these organizations arguing & bickering with who they
censor than to have the people who are censored suing the
government. the people who want free net access have it, and
are unbothered by these controversies.  in other words, 
by moving the controversies to places where they are locally
contained (i.e. among the blockers and blockees) the rest
of the surfing public is unaffected and perhaps even protected
from harassment.

so you see? there is all kinds of ranting about censorship going
on, but it has nothing to do with the way the vast majority uses
the internet. it's completely voluntary. it's the perfect solution.
so far, nothing the blocking companies do can affect the net as
a whole. they are largely predicated on that function. 

in a real sense they are providing very general services of
"rating web sites our customers will be most interested in". 
and you realize, even the Point Communications awards are the
exact same thing.

so again, please do not harass the companies. it's a solution
that does work. the existence of controversy does not prove
it doesn't work. it in fact proves that it does work.



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