| Subject: So this week's DWR topic is the Internet? |
Author:
ML Starkey
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Date Posted: 10:52:17 06/17/03 Tue
In reply to:
Dennis
's message, "In Defense of Our "Four Simple Rules"" on 06:52:08 06/17/03 Tue
>I get kidded by Warren about how our rules diminish
>feedback. But that's okay by me. The alternative is
>to put up with the way the internet is becoming, as
>Mr. O'Reilly describes it in the attached. No,
>thanks! Not a game I care to play.
I love how folks think that the Internet can be squelched, regulated/legislated and otherwise "controlled". What we now call the "Internet" was basically a Cold War experiement in how to create a communication network that would survive nuclear war. The nature of the beast here is to be immune to interuptions and work around them.
Also, the Internet is not restricted to the US. It's worldwide, folks. Hey, why don't we just go the way of communist China and so many of those middle eastern kingdoms where the Internet is "outlawed" or censored (and even then, those who want it can get around it)?
This is a moderated forum, which is a perfectly acceptable way of doing things. We don't need the "nanny state" here to keep discussion acceptable, we handle that ourselves.
There are some unmoderated forums here in Dracut, which do from time to time become a free for all. The best lesson there is to "not feed the trolls"; without people responding to their "bait", they have no reason to exists and will slink away to bother someone else. If an offensive post shows up, have your friendly moderator/forum admin remove it.
If you are worried about exposing your kids to the seamier side of the Internet, then monitor their use of the family computer. Frankly, I'm more worried about the sex offender that may be living in my neighborhood/town, then the Internet.
As for Mr. O'Really (whom I don't care for; apparently his mother never taught him not to interrupt people when they are talking):
"... The reason these net people get away with all kinds of stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up with no restraints ..."
Sounds like a fair description of corporate america to me, especially in the Bush era.
"So all over the country, we have people posting the most vile stuff imaginable, hiding behind high tech capabilities. Sometimes the violators are punished, but most are not ..."
I think that NH cop (the one that masquerades on line as a teen boy or girl to trap pedophiles) is doing a fine job. I wonder if someone is going to come along with a real good attorney and make a precedent setting case for entrapment. Not to mention what is "vile" to one person is acceptable to another.
"...creeps gossiping about celebrities [and even small-town public officials] in the crudest of ways ...
So perhaps we should put The National Enquirer out of business?
"The Internet has become a sewer of slander and libel, an unpatrolled polluted waterway, where just about anything goes."
One person's "sewer of slander and libel" is another person's door to information and enlightenment. Just as the advent of the fax machine was thought to have a hand in the fall of the USSR, the Internet is shining a light into many dark places on the globe.
"... big corporations [and people who identify themselves!] are big targets. If they misbehave, they can be sued for big bucks. These small time hit and run operators on the net, however, can traffic in perversity and falsehoods all day long with impunity. It's almost impossible to rein them in."
I don't worry about the big corps too much. Big corps have big money and big lawyers. Often, they find ways to limit the free speech of others, like these "walmartsucks.com" sites that get squashed because BigCorp doesn't want it's dirty laundry aired. BigCorp loves the Internet when it's making money from it's webstore, but if someone is using the web to counter it, that's different, in thier eyes.
In my eyes, the Internet is a miracle of the modern age and helps us PRESERVE and DEFEND our freedoms. How much do you think we'd really know about the current political situation (Iraq WMD, and all that) if all we had was the "ABC Nightly News" (brought to you by BigCorp)? Now we can read the news from other countries and get the info that was somehow "sanitized" for us?
Anyway, I'm ranting now, so I'm done.
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