🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <freematt-1002961050100001@cmh42.coil.com>,
Matthew Gaylor <freematt@bronze.coil.com> wrote:
>In article <DMHMMK.BpM@world.std.com>, boursy@world.std.com (Stephen
>Boursy) wrote:
>
>
>>         I perhaps overstated my case on the EFF when the were still in
>> Cambridge.  Of course it's relevant and important for them to advocate
>> for general online issues protecting ISP's from censorship, etc.  My
>> point was, and remains, that they have done virtually nothing for
>> individual consumers who have problems with ISP's regarding censorship--
>> i.e. plug pulling, content censorship, forged cencels, etc.  That to me
>> is where at least a healthy portion of the emphasis should be.
>
>
>What an ISP provides in relation to their service is a business decision. 


	Ralph Nader would not view it that way now would he??  If that's
EFF's position they are indeed quite dead.

<snip>
>
>>A vast majority of users come in from large profit oriented corporations who
>> can well afford their own attorneys.  The emphasis, as with any decent
>> consumer organiztion, must be on protecting the rights of the consumer
>> which are often at odds with policies of profit making ISP's.
>> 
>
>Why must there always be someone with as Ludwig Von Mises put it "An
>anti-capitalist mentality"?  There is nothing wrong with profit and there
>is nothing wrong with large profit oriented corporations.  


	Large corporations are, by their very nature, amoral.  That isn't
nec. bad or good but consumers need protection as with other industries.
Take the meat packing industry, the auto industry, etc.  Corporations
care about nothing but profit--and they can well afford their own
legal representation and lobbyists--if that's who EFF wants to represent
thats fine--but they've little to offer consumers.


>The problem
>raises its ugly head when indivduals and groups use the force of the state
>to make us do their bidding.  The problem with net censorship is with the
>State.


	There is very little separation between corporate interests and
the State in the US which is why we need consumer protection advocates.
Perhaps I was wrong to expect that from EFF.

				Steve