[3449] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: configuring a site to ban porno/violence www access...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dckinder@ahcbsd1.ovnet.com)
Mon Nov 4 13:42:25 1996
From: dckinder@ahcbsd1.ovnet.com
To: Jacob Rose <jacob@whiteshell.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 11:23:38 +0000
CC: Quantum <quantum@obsidian.cse.fau.edu>, www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Actually, the metaphor of medieval siege warfare fits this situation
pretty well.
By restricting the free flow of Internet access, Singapore is
obtaining certain advantages (from its point of view, of course).
However, it also is incurring certain disadvantages.
Singapore is attempting to set itself up as the next Hong Kong. This
would require its full participation in international commerce. As
international commerce becomes more and more integrated with the
Internet, Singapore, in order to participate, must open itself up to
the Internet.
This, in turn, will make it more difficult to restrict access to
other parts of the Internet.
A big country, such as Russia or China, could for some time cut
itself off from the outside world and assert local self-reliance.
Mao Tse-Tung actually tried to do this during the Cultural
Revolution. A small country with few internal resources, such as
Singapore, would find such an effort difficult to sustain.
So Singapore must either cut itself off, and endure a "siege" of
information deprivation or it must open itself up, and endure an
"invasion" of unwanted as well as wanted information input.
Therefore, it appears Singapore ultimately will be forced to open
itself up.
Duncan Kinder
dckinder@ovnet.com
> > Mr. Wee seems to be trying to build a system which conforms to the
> > communications laws of his country, as I most imperfectly
> > understand all but the high points of them to be. The US is not
> > the net, and vice versa.
>
> Yes, but the law of the Net is free speech. Just because Singapore
> is run by a bunch of weenies doesn't mean the Internet should
> conform to their misguided policies.
>
> Jacob Rose The price and the cost of automobile
> jacob@whiteshell.com travel are two very different
> values.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
> Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
> Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
> Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
> The lone and level sands stretch far away."
>
> --Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
>
>
