Fred Moore <fmoore@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <02b73748$0$14092$c3e8da3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Warren Oates <warren.oates@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> What
> they have decided to do is equivalent to dropping all email because a
> few users send kiddy **** files via their email servers (which _does_
> happen according to the police).
Or for that matter, dropping all "good old" US postal snail mail because
some people send **** via it. That certainly has a long history of
happening - a lot longer history than the net has at all. It certainly
happened back when I was a teen (about 4 decades ago). I can testify
first hand to that. :-) (Well, not first hand to the kiddie part, but
I'm sure that happened as well.) I rather suspect that the history of
sending **** via snail mail is more properly measured in centuries
instead of decades.
> > ...They're not limiting "free speech:" there are dozens of free and
cheap
> > and expensive and whatnot NNTP providers you're free to subscribe to.
Go
> > with SSL if you can.
>
> Well, I strongly disagree, Warren. Yes, there are lots of other nntp
> servers out there, but...
I'd say that you misunderstand one of the most fundamental points of
free speech. "Free speech" refers to your right to be free of government
interference with your speech (I'll not go into the huge side issue of
all the interpretations and exceptions). There is no a requirement that
a private company or individual provide you with a forum for your
speech. You are, of course, free to dislike the fact that TW doesn't
provide you with such a forum, and you are free to observe, as you have,
the ill effects of decisions like TW's. I even agree with you.
But that doesn't make it a free speech issue any more than it is if,
say, Springer Verlag, and for that matter every other publisher as well,
refused to publish the book that I authored. Free speech is *NOT* a
right to have your speech heard. It is only a right to be free of
government interference with your speech. Note that TW is not the
government; yes, the distinction matters.
Of course, to the extent that TW is a government-sanctioned monopoly,
things get... messier. But that's got more fundamental issues such as
what the government is doing sanctioning such things in the first place.
I happen to have strong opinions in that area, but it is wandering a bit
too far off-topic, so I thihk I'll not go there from here.
--
Richard Maine | Good judgement comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgement.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain
|
