CDR: Re: Filters

[Tim May]

At 1:39 PM -0400 10/25/00, Ray Dillinger wrote:
>
>
>The v-chip does *not* prevent programming from reaching my home -
>it doesn't even prevent programming from reaching the homes of
>those who've willingly purchased and installed it, but it prevents
>stuff they'd find objectionable from being displayed on their
>screens.  This is their right.  After all, we're talking about
>*their* screens.

1. The V-chip was _mandated_ for inclusion in all televisions bought 
after some date. No choice, no opt out, a mandatory increased cost. 
This is not consistent with freedom and non-coercion. (Saying the 
customer has the option of not using the V-chip features is 
irrelevant; that the manufacturer was commanded to include V-chip was 
the crime.)

2. The V-chip is, predictably, completely ineffectual in preventing 
Junior from accessing porn, whatever. For obvious reasons. First, 
most televisions pre-date the V-chip. Second, many other distribution 
mechanisms abound. Third, the V-chip programming is accessible to 
teens and others...their parents probably go to _them_ to ask for 
help (and then give up on the whole process).

All it takes is the kid with the stash of porn to defeat the whole 
idea...just as when we were kids. The kid with the "questionable 
content" is precisely the one who will find one of the hundreds of 
millions of televisions without the V-Chip.

And much more importantly, one of the hundreds of millions of VCRs 
which will play "Debbie Does Cyberspace" without any regard for what 
some nominal V-Chip will provide. (I don't believe even 
current-production VCRs are required to have the V-Chip, and since 
many folks use the VCR as their television tuner....)

The whole V-Chip thing was a typical exercise in "feel good 
legislation." "Let's do something to show we care about saving the 
children."

In any case, pragmatic issues aside, there is no justification in a 
free society for telling the maker of some piece of equipment that he 
must include some piece of censorware.

--Tim May
-- 
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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