Compuserve
Sara aka Perrrfect
>What a bunch of chickenshits at Compuserve for denying access to
>"pornographic" groups because the German government is whining about it.
>
>Funny... I don't see the German government getting upset about the Nazi
>groups online.
>
>Compuserve caved. I'm GLAD I get my addess through a provider that doesn't
>play those games.
>
Yes, Compuslop has once again decided they'd rather kow-tow to the
few, rather than stand on any principles. To call them chickenshits is
a bit unfair, however. To chickenshit.
The last time Compuserf did this was when they removed the shareware
game "Wolfenstien 3-D" from their libraries. It was due to objections
by, you guessed it, the same lovely guys in Gemany. It seems that they
passed a law making depictions of swastikas illegal. Nevermind that
the game was one in which the gamer was supposed to KILL Nazis, or was
the real reason the game made them nervous?
Does anyone at Compusuck read any history? Let's take a trip back a
few decades. There was a country on this planet that wanted to impose
censorship upon their populace. They burned and banned books, movies,
music and even went out of their way to defame art they didn't like.
Now, let's see, which country was it...
Oh, I remember! It was Germany! Under that little corporal with the
hideous mustache, Hitler. Yes, he wanted to censor things, too. The
more censorship he could impose, the better, it seems.
Now, the same country is dictating to citizens of other countries all
over the world what is "decent" and "obscene". At least the little
corporal had the decency to invade before imposing laws upon people in
other countries.
The Columbus Dogpatch carried an article stating that about 500,000
Germans have Compuself-serving accounts. For 500,000 accounts, this
company wants to cut service to a few million other subscribers?
The reasonable thing to do, it would seem to me, is for Compuslush to
cut service to Germany, and ask for assistance from all other
commercial services. Let the German government take the heat from
their population no longer being able to access
alt.fan.david-hasselhoff. Rather than penalizing the majority of its
users for the sake of one country that wants to go back to the glory
days of the Third Wrong.
The 200 newsgroups blasted from Compuserve did not all contain
"kiddie-porn." I doubt if even the few groups that might supposedly be
devoted to pedophilia contain any. Beyond some lame scans from 1950's
vintage nudist magazines, that is. The models for which are about
ready to start drawing pensions now. Amazing how stuff that old can
raise a ruckus today.
So, on the off chance that one photo might exist, somewhere, over 200
newsgroups carrying information that might not even be photographic,
let alone pornographic are cut off. My, that's real smart.
Might I suggest that this philosophy could be extended, if Compustupid
wants to practice it? You have some very nice buildings, why don't you
burn them down, as one room of them might have roaches in it?
Let's look at some other institutions. One Republican Senator had to
resign over allegations of sexual impropriety, shouldn't ALL
Republican Senators have to resign? One Congressman is going to jail
for very real charges of child pornography (he made his own),
shouldn't all Congressmen go to jail?
I have heard that some folks posting on this topic have gotten flamed
for "supporting pedophiles". I don't know which trailer park such
flamers live in or I'd be asking the powers that be for a tornado
about now. One would have to be a major-league moron suitable only for
creating drool to not be able to tell the difference between
supporting freedom of expression and supporting pedophiles. If you are
considering flaming me, then get your one brain cell out and try to at
least misspell your blatherings creatively. I doubt arguing with any
of you would be half as entertaining as watching paint dry. If you had
the capacity for a logical argument, you wouldn't be maintaining your
position in favor of censorship. You'd be out there demanding the
camel of censorship be keep its nose out of the tent of the internet.
But, the real villains in this are the executive wussies at
Compustarve. Not satisfied with being the most expensive dinosaur
amongst the online services, they figure that rather than come up with
a technological fix for their German customers, they would just cut
off everyone's nose to save their assetts. Why not just keep all
German customers from doing anything but internet e-mail? You already
have the means to limit access to the net in your software. Just tell
your customers there to write their government and demand their
internet back if they want to lust for David Hasselhoff.
But, nooooooooo, you can't act like you have a pair...of feet. You
can't just walk out of "the important European market". Get it
throught your thick heads. If you ain't taking care of business at
home, you soon won't have one. Piss off Americans only at the risk of
having your morning commute to work be on the Autobahn.
Net users, cancel or at least reduce your C$erve accounts! If you
don't have one, then make sure your voice is heard far and wide. Free
of CompuServile and proud of it!!!!
Cougar
You can't stand still on Freedom's track,
If you don't move forward, you go back.
You can't giddyup by saying "Whoa!"
And sitting on your status quo! - Harold Rome "Pins & Needles"