[133] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Is SunFlash misuse of the network?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vaughan Pratt)
Mon Nov 12 15:33:02 1990
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 90 12:18:34 PST
From: Vaughan Pratt <pratt@cs.stanford.edu>
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc: pratt@coraki.Stanford.EDU
The books "Money, Sex, and Power" by Nancy Hartsock, "Sex, Money, and
Morality" by Thanh-Dam Truong, "Sex, Death, and Money" by Gore Vidal,
"Money, Sex, and Power" by Richard Foster, "Power, Money, and Sex" by
James Robertson, and just plain "Sex and Money" by John Spooner, make a
connection that all members of the networking community should heed.
Every medium has its prudes and defenders in matters of both sex and
money. Networking is showing itself to be no exception. Each of these
four categories can be found attacking or defending the use of networks
for commercial or sexual ends. There are those offended by its
commercial use, and those who defend it. There are those who would
forbid sexually explicit material and those who strenuously oppose any
such censorship.
These petty wars between the prudes and the defenders are fueled by the
heat of principle. They would be extinguished by the cold logic of
compromise if ever it were given half a chance. But it is plain that
hell will freeze over before these wars cool off.
If anyone wishes to dispute this, let them just try to gather in the
one room the principals in both sides of either of these wars to
identify their differences and arrive at a compromise satisfactory to
both sides. You will never succeed because those principals love only
their principles and detest compromise.
So whose side am I on? All I know is that sexual prudes gave us
Puritanism and the Victorian era, while financial prudes gave us
Communism and destroyed the economics of a third of the world. These
poltergeists are back, they have invaded our brave new world of
networking, and they want to cut off the funding of those distributing
sexual material and the balls of those distributing commercial
material.
What have the sexual defenders and financial defenders given us? I can
think of one thing only of substance, and that is freedom. Now there's
a principle worth fighting for. Vive la guerre. Down with
compromise.
Vaughan Pratt
Sun stockholder with access to alt.sex.pictures
Which would you deprive me of, and why?
