🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <841008992snz@bierman.demon.co.uk>
           tim@bierman.demon.co.uk "Tim Bierman" writes:

 [snip]

> If a particular Internet provider decides to refuse messages posted to
> particular newsgroups, this will do no good at all, as the messages would
> simply be posted with other newsgroup names in them instead. The people
> genuinely interested in the material (legally or otherwise) would soon find
> out where to look, but the people already using the replacement groups for
> their legitimate purpose would soon get thoroughly fed up with extraneous
> (not to mention offensive) material coming down their phone lines.

  And therefore soon have the misuse stopped!  Whereas you cannot stamp
  out stray news articles, what you can do is refuse to carry those groups
  which promote illegal material.  Nobody can or would want to prevent 
  would-be recipients of borderline material to set up a mailing list. 
  The point is they would then have to ACTIVELY request such mail by
  registering their true or anonymous net address.  And the police 
  authorities would of course subscribe as well, in order to monitor
  transmissions for evidence of crime.
    
> I notice this is crossposted to misc.kids. Well, how would you like it if
> the half-baked propagandists at the government got their way, and (say) all
> alt.sex.* groups were unavailable from UK providers ... then the purveyors
> of porn started posting it in misc.kids instead? Would you then be happy for
> this group to be banned, and then the next, and then the next?

  The purpose is not to ban erotic material, but to stamp out pictorial 
  evidence of the misuse of children, whether leading to their death or
  degradation.  

  [snip]

> Children do not need to be saved from the Internet. The Internet needs to
> be saved from vested interests so that todays children can grow up with
> access to information these interests would want to keep away from them ...
> about their health, their environment, and the conditions of their
> compatriots around the world. If you want to do something about porn etc.,
> then use the Internet to do it ... help track down the sources rather than
> shooting the messenger.

  Ideally Internet providers should be able to keep their house in order,
  but it may be difficult in practice from them to draw a line.  Rather,
  a newsgroup should not be created if its proposed charter is deemed 
  illegal, or it should be deleted if the charter turns out to be only pro 
  forma.  

-- 
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
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