[9055] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: sleaze
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mark Boolootian)
Wed Dec 15 12:31:51 1993
From: booloo@framsparc.ocf.llnl.gov (Mark Boolootian)
To: sdw@meaddata.com (Stephen Williams)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 09:31:08 -0800 (PST)
Cc: francis@avalle.insoft.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9312151644.AA08251@jungle.meaddata.com> from "Stephen Williams" at Dec 15, 93 11:44:42 am
>I posted, I think to com-priv also, a solution more easily implemented
>that attempted to achieve the same end: Create a new kind of message
>(that current news software would just see as a normal message) that
>allows positive or negative endorsement of messages.
This is all well intentioned, and perhaps it is a start. But as long as
individuals can create arbitrary TCP connections, you will not be able to
prevent people from circumventing your system. I would be willing to bet you
that as soon as users see that mechanisms are being developed to mitigate
the transmission of certain kinds of data via netnews, an effort to produce
software to end-run around this problem would surface.
If someone somewhere on the net wants to make available X-rated gifs, a copy
of the Satanic Verses, words to the song "Cop Killer", or any other item
which some find morally repugnant, then unless you can bring the law down on the
individual making this resource available, or severe their connection to the
net, there is little you can do to prevent other sites from accessing this
data.
However, I'm not sure if this discussion is about preventing children from
accidentally stumbling across a group such as alt.sex, or from preventing
children from intentionally accessing that material. The former has some chance
of coming to pass; the latter, I think, none whatsoever.
mb
