pierre@raunvis.UUCP (Kjartan Pierre Emilsson Jardedlisfraedi) (04/13/89)
In all this discussion about freedom of speech(hate) over the net
which presumably is to be enforced by the american constitution (sic!),
I would like to point out one little detail that you americans do not
seem to realize. All this net-talk is distributed world-wide, which
means two things:
1. The american constitution does not cover newsfeeds lying
outside its jurisdiction.
2. The idea of freedom is quite different (more civilized
some would say) in other countries, especially Europe.
And from this we can draw (at least I can) the following conclusion:
Either we introduce some sort of control over the net, which would
vary, depending on in which country the electronic babble is being
sent through,
OR
We keep the net anarchic in the following sense:
Everybody has the right to send whatever trash their sick mind
is able to produce.
Everybody has the right to rip to pieces whatever sick letters
offends them immensely.
Everybody#1 and Everybody#2 can then pulverize themselves on
alt.flames.
This has some obvious good points:
We keep the net free of any government censorship.
If the net is sufficiently interconnected, then slightly
offending letters have a good chance to reach any site even
if it is torn to pieces at some nodes, but if the letter is
very offending then its chances becomes slim.
-Kjartan
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Kjartan Pierre Emilsson
Science Institute - University of Iceland
Dunhaga 3
107 Reykjavik
Iceland Internet: kjartan@raunvis.hi.is