U.S. State Dept criticizes Chinese net-censorship

[Jean-Francois Avon JFA Technologies, QC, Canada]

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>Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 8-Mar-96 Re: U.S. State Dept
>critici.. by JFA T. QC, Canada at citene 
>> There is no such thing as "self-censorship".  Either you stick to 
>> your values, and then it is *not* censorship, or then you do not,
>> and then, it is neither.
>
>Self-censorship does happen, and it's a growing problem in the arts
>community. (I'm not a commercial artist, so this is my understanding
>from other panelists and speakers at a conference I spoke at last month.)
>
>Making art more palatable or less "extreme" to curry favor with
>corporate patrons, or to get that NEA grant, or to get that faculty
>position is self-censorship, and it does happen.

No, it does not.  Making art more palatable is simply the process of 
free trade between two uncoerced entities.  If the artist does not offer
what the corporate purchaser wants he will not sell.  He thus adapt his
style out to his customer.  Nobody is threatening to use force to
have the artist conform to the client.  Nobody is forcing the client 
to buy what he does not like.

The artist does not have to compromise, he simply have to refuse the 
contract.

Anybody using the term "censorship" to describe that is in the following
situation : he *wants* the advantages of the contract (money) without
respecting the customer, therefore.  He deplores the fact that somebody
(the customer) can act to his best judgment.  The fact that the artist
calls that censorship shows that he have the same thought process as
the true censorers, i.e. the conviction that the end justify the means,
and more specifically, the feeling that *his* ends justify *any* means.

The artist may not act on his feelings but nevertheless, they are, in
essence, of this nature.

And unfortunately, too many artists think that way.

JFA
Accepting a grant is accepting stolen money.
The collectivists and their free-lunchers be DAMNED!
Restore an objective monetary standard such as gold!



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 Public Key at http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon
    Jean-Francois Avon <jf_avon at citenet.net> 
    2048 bits key ID:C58ADD0D  1996/03/01    
fingerprint=52 96 45 E8 20 5A 8A 5E  F8 7C C8 6F AE FE F8 91