From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 18:05:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The V-Chip glass is half full
Message-ID: <199602100721.XAA18354@netcom7.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


As a incurable optimist, I would like to offer a view contrary to all the
V-Chip doom and gloom.

Consider the Movie rating system as a precedent.  In the old days there was
a rating system in Hollywood which made it impossible to show a married
couple sleeping in the same bed.  This situation is analogous to modern TV
where George Carlin's 7 naughty words may not be spoken.

Contrast that with today's movies.  There is a much wider latitude about
the movies you can make and distribute.  All you have to do is label them
NC-17, R. or X and you are clean.  Of course, there are newspapers which
will not allow you to advertise and theaters which will not show the
X/NC-17 movies, but that's the way the market works.

With some luck, we will be able to see on TV what we can now see in the
movie theater, and the prudes will screen it out with the V-Chip the same
way they now screen it out with the movie rating.  Everyone is (more or
less) happy.

Panglossianly yours - Bill