[12636] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: It's getting worse
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul Phillips)
Wed May 25 00:56:55 1994
Date: Tue, 24 May 1994 15:16:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Paul Phillips <paulp@is.internic.net>
To: Bill Frezza <frezza@radiomail.net>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, opfer@radiomail.net, Sam_Boyle@mcimail.com, aa@wired.com,
eff-board@eff.org
In-Reply-To: <199405241528.AA07596@radiomail.net>
On Tue, 24 May 1994, Bill Frezza wrote:
> Here we go. Now we've got the United Church of Christ defining
> info-entitlements as a civil rights issue.
Unfortunately, this is a logical extension in the ongoing perversion of
the "civil rights" movement. Once an admirable cause devoted to breaking
down long-held prejudices, its proponents now seem bent upon
reconstructing all of these ills in a new form.
We've got the universal health care crowd clamoring on this side, the
universal housing crowd on this side, the universal employment crowd
muscling in between. Now the universal information access crowd, fearing
being shut out of an ever shrinking pie, is going to stake their claim to
a piece of it and damn the consequences.
> Where does it all end?
If it's ever to be stopped, we really need to ask "Where did it all
begin?" Once upon a time legislators became confused as to what exactly
constituted a right, and the special interest groups have controlled them
ever since.
Access to the "Information Highway" is not a civil rights issue. To
construe it as such is to do a great disservice to those areas that truly
are a matter of civil rights.
-Paul Phillips (speaking only for myself)
