[940] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Privitization is the issue today
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eliot)
Thu Jul 11 18:01:36 1991
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 91 14:59:13 -0700
From: lear@turbo.bio.net (Eliot)
To: edtjda@magic322.chron.com
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
First of all, we are indeed in mixed company on this mailing list, and
your use of the term ``gentlemen'' seems inappropriate.
>There were huge sites on the net that took the story in stride
>without a moment's pause, because they'd taken seriously the
>acceptable use policies attached to their federal money.
You clearly don't have an inkling of the hardship you would have those
universities go through (not to mention the ethical qunadries) to try
to restrict freedom of expression. The end result would be a most
unpleasant atmosphere.
>Let me ask a rhetorical question: What did the net.community expect would
>happen when a newspaper eventually got a copy of something like Cindy's
>Torment, with "Baylor University" and "Southern Methodist University" splashed
>across the top of the page? Cindy was the actual catalyst, it might interest
>you to know, and once she had been turned loose in the newsroom there was no
>stopping her.
You would be an extremely dangerous character in a library. When do
YOU draw the line between literature, art, and pornography?
>I don't twist words, I didn't twist words. I delivered a timely, mostly
>accurate story in the face of a universally hostile climate. Everyone
>interviewed had the chance to address the issues head-on and defuse the
>situation, but chose not to do so, with the exception of Mitch Kapor. In
>retrospect, that's the one thing I would do differently, press more at
>the real issues. But I was intimidated then of my sources and an over-
>whelmingly complex subject.
You focused your readers on an issue that costs them in real dollars
less than one penny each. Because of right wing alarmist reaction,
you would have policy makers making panic stricken decisions (can you
say Flag Amendment? I knew you could).
>Today, that's not the case. There's not a better qualified journalist
>than me to address the national policy issues surrounding this network and
>its future.
John Markoff of New York Times.
Sharon Fisher (Freelance).
You ought to listen, learn, and ask questions instead of writing on
that which you know very little about.
>ANS is engendering an enormous amount of opposition among the people
>with whom I've talked recently, and with that much smoke it's easy to
>guess there's a fire.
Perhaps, but be sure that you know the source of the fire, and don't
go hooting about someone who burned her arms because they touched a
hotpot.
--
Eliot Lear
[lear@turbo.bio.net]
