[11688] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: PC Mag Bashes Internet! Good Job!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark R. Ludwig)
Wed Apr 13 20:54:25 1994
From: "Mark R. Ludwig" <Mark-Ludwig@uai.com>
To: kgibbs@world.std.com (Kelly E Gibbs)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199404122129.AA15394@world.std.com>
from "Kelly E Gibbs" on Tue, 12 Apr 1994 17:29:37 EDT.
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 09:11:53 -0700
>>>>> "K" == Kelly E Gibbs <kgibbs@world.std.com> writes:
K> PC Mags attack on the Internet was long overdue. The Internet has become
K> a junk yard of electronic news and mail. The information usually received
K> from the Internet isn't worth reading.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Don't like what you see? Look
at something else! It's quite a concept, isn't it?
K> Once I thought the Internet would be something I could show my kids and
K> let them learn from using it - however today it's filth and foul language
K> idiots keep us at a distance.
You're focussed in the wrong place, obviously, because very little of
what I read daily has any filth or foul language. I read both USENET
newsgroups and Internet mailing lists such as this one.
On the other hand, even mailing lists such as this one occasionally
erupt into anger. If you go to a fast-food outlet in any large city,
you run a much higher risk of overhearing profanities at the next
table. Better yet, try a fast-food outlet near a Univerity! How
about being amidst roudy fans in the stands at a sporting event?
K> This is what we call the Information Superhighway has turned out to be
K> a dark backroad in Mississippi. Engineers have a lot to learn from
K> the Internet's mistakes, and the government really needs to regulate
K> what goes on.
Aha! You're _looking_ for the problem, because you want to impose
_your_ values on the rest of us. Do you get upset about corner
convenience stores which carry Playboy too? What's wrong with a dark
back-road in Mississippi, anyway?
Shall we talk about the _real_ purpose of regulation? Surely you
don't think it's public welfare? If you do, you haven't ever looked
at the process beyond what the news media want you to think. Do you
believe everything you see and read? Think about the motivations
behind the regulators, and you might just see that regulation
generally tilts the market place in a direction which favors one or
more competitors and harms the rest.
K> I back the Clinton on Clipper and other issues. The internet needs
K> an authority, since you people have no conception that your abusing
K> the public.
You might regret backing Clipper when it becomes required, all other
privacy methods are illegal, and _you_ want to keep something private
from the government, like your activities in the opposition party.
How can I _possibly_ abuse the public? In order to read what I write
to this mailing list, one must have done something to request it, in
one fashion or another.
This mailing list is public in the same way a book in your town
library is public. You have to go there and _select_ those James
Joyce books which contain filth and foul language. You could as
easily pick up Dr. Seuss. It's _your_ choice, but I guess that's just
too much for you to handle.
>From one who espouses totalitarian values, you must be very unhappy in
a relatively anarchic place such as the United States of America. Try
Cuba, Libya, or North Korea; you'll be happier.$$
--
INET: Mark-Ludwig@UAI.COM NIC: ML255 ICBM: USA; Lower Left Coast
"Cigarettes ... are not a drug."
-- Tom Lorea from the Tobacco Institute
