🚀 go-pugleaf

Jim Mercer (jim@reptiles.org) wrote:
: i doubt that the net will legally become a nation unto itself, so users of
: the net should have consideration for other users.

The lack of physical attributes and something seizable with military force
would probably scare the rest of the nations in the world too much for this
to happen. It would probably delight terrorists tho.

: this would apply in many areas, most of which are "religious".

: christians should respect muslims, american "democracy" should respect
: canadian "democracy".  MS-DOS users should respect Mac users.

This is a wild sci-fi story, Jim! The above may be possible, but the right
to free speech remains. Whether people can use it without flaming or being
weenies is to be seen. No, wait, I can see it now, and the usenet is quite
full of weenies. (I'm one, aren't you? :)

: if it were possible to police them, i would probably support that initiative.

This is probably where we differ. I agree with the common carrier pov you
have, strongly, and I'll push for it. (Where's the protest location at? :)
However, policing? I dont think so. There's going to be so much garbage on 
the usenet it will be hard to sort through it. I think that varying degrees
of the net will emerge, ranging from free-for-all to semi private newsgroups
thru private groups (which are embodied right now by mailing lists, which
STILL, to me, represent the most pure form of INFORMATION (as opposed to
random data, flames and poorly written posts)). People will pay corporations
(Clarinet case in point) to edit their newsfeeds for content (and obey the
law I spose).

I have faith in the human species to overcome its fear of information reaching
everyone and everyone becoming equal. I have faith that people can become
mature enough to deal with what they read, and respond accordingly. I dont
think that any amount of policing will be healthy. Who will fund it to
begin with? This cant happen effectively if we still have a geographical
concept of "nation". Wait 50 years.

There's already a large amount of non-authoritarian self-policing going on
here - alot of people learn the hardships of the Usenet very quickly - such
as how easy it is to get flamed, when not to use ":)" (I'm in an 12step prog.
currently for that, so dont talk to me about it... :) :) :), etc etc. People
DO learn how to behave themselves, even when there's very little to lose for
NOT behaving. This is all routed in theories of sociology which I dont know
much about. I am sure there are tons of emerging studies of the net which
see it as a very unique and unprecedented social structure, which has evolved
its own culture and sets of unwritten, yet abided by, rules. I have faith
that everyone will come to know and obey these laws to some extent.

: it isn't possible, so the best i can do is ask them to have some common
: courtesy, and respect the beliefs of others, even if those beliefs
: radically differ from their own.

What if the NSA managed to get encryption outlawed in the US somehow (a
radical point, but bear with me) - then you posted a uuencoded PGP
somewhere? As it is, alot of FTP sites are at risk (last I heard) for
having PGP online, and PGP fingering sites were shut down (and moved? to
europe?), etc. Do you agree with that? Will you abide by that rule? Assuming
there's no penalty for it since you are outside their jurisdiction (tho the
US has a nifty history of some classiq extraditions).

: in the above, i am not trying to quiet debate, i would encourage it.  but
: that debate should take place in an appropriate group, not a roving street
: battle as we currently have.

Its always a roving street battle to someone. :) I think we've manage to
avoid most flameage here, and I've reset my pov of the usenet back a year or
two. Its not quite as bad as I thought, since I've been able to reply to
intelligent posts in here (while avoiding others) - its not been a total loss
by any stretch tho. I quite enjoy this.

/kc
-- 
Ken P. Chasse -- Sysadmin, Sonic Interzone   "Carrying netnews does not a 
Public Access email/Usenet -- 416-968-7292    publisher make." - something
spooge@sizone.pci.on.ca --  Toronto CANADA    I'd like to see. Support it.