Rheingold and the White House
Interpersonal Computing and Technology
On Dec. 18, STEWART A. DENENBERG wrote:
>And what did we think of Rheingold's missive? I found it to be a bit too
>shrill for my tastes...
What do you find so "shrill" about it?
Personally, from what I've read of the draft legislation, I think Rheingold
is if anything, muted in his tone.
The great irony here is that the concern is a peculiarly =American= one.
The global Internet is such that if censorship problems put a damper on the
current quasi-anarchistic nature of the medium, that with all their vaunted
1st amendment rights, Americans will have to turn to offshore sources to
enjoy the degree of freedom they have now. I don't know how many will,
given the thrall the huge corporations seem to put American citizens under
-- perhaps with Netscape's proprietary WWW coding, JavaScript, etc., the
Microsoft Network, the conversion to 500,000 bps connections via cable
modems, etc., people in the U.S. will perhaps not be aware of what they
have lost, as Rheingold implies. Ironically, it is the very non-geographic
specific design of the Internet that was developed during the Cold War to
foil nuclear attack, the TCP/IP design, that will guarantee that any U.S.
laws will be ineffectual.
Those providers who don't want to be controlled by U.S. legislation will
simply move off shore, or to Canada, Mexico, etc., and unless the NSA wants
to start cutting phone connections on a large scale basis, people who keep
their old software and modems will continue to get whatever they want off
the Internet, or rather the non-U.S. manifestations of the Internet. In
overreacting to the Internet's sexual content, the legislation will make
the Internet like sex, ubiquitous despite all prohibitions.
Banned URLs and ftp sites outside the U.S. will doubtless flourish in the
coming age of U.S. censorship, just as the freedom of videos proved to be
unsupressable. As with the Vietnam war and global trade, the U.S. will
discover it cannot impose its own peculiar Zietgeist on the world, or even
on its own people.
END
Joe Wheeler, MA Cand., New School for Social Research
mailing address: #414-310 Robert St.
Victoria, B.C.
Canada V9A 3Z4
Tel and Fax: (604) 388-5712
e-mail: jwhe...@pinc.com
Interpersonal Computing and Technology
Dear Sir,
I complement you on your commitment to intellectual freedom. However, I
must caution you that rhetorical statements such as every American
university plans to shut off access to the internet, take it away from
the students on the advice of their lawyers, hurt and reduce the
credibility of your argument.
Also, is it not strange that after all the messages urging action, the
phone number to the White House is supplied and not the email address?
Respectfully,
s
Elizabeth Boyson Phone:406-994-5305
Montana State University - Bozeman FAX:406-994-2851
Serials/Acquisitions Internet: al...@montana.edu
Renne Library
Bozeman, MT 59717