From: Ed Carp <erc@dal1820.computek.net>
Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 16:24:53 +0800
To: EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU (E. ALLEN SMITH)
Subject: Re: Freedom and Security
In-Reply-To: <01I49XXMDSMO8Y56P8@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
Message-ID: <199605032127.RAA04670@dal1820.computek.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


Rather than repeat the whole argument, I'd like to point out something:

> 	C. As has been pointed out by others, even if actual child pornography
> is on the Net, it is not in and of itself doing any harm to children. It is

> 	D. As has been pointed out, the use of child pornography is a classic
> "Horseman" (of the Four). In other words, the CyberAngels are using child
> pornography as a red herring for their even more objectionable activities.

> to learn the basic lesson of "mind your own business." Bringing goverment into
> the matter may both result in a violation of individual civil liberties and
> may result in increased governmental control over the Internet.

> >The Internet is a city - it needs 911 services and it needs Neighborhood
> >Watches.  And neither professional law enforcement nor neighborhood watch
> >are by definition a threat to anyone's freedom.  Freedom within the context

> >Freedom is under threat from two directions - from selfish individuals who
> >care little for the Community, and from the over zealousness of governments
> >who seek greater and greater control over individual thought and action.

The 'threat' is non-existent - it's no longer a threat, but reality.  Why 
do you think that the government was so desperate to slide the CDA 
through?  Folks like the "CyberAngels" are the best friend of an 
intrusive government - they give them an excuse.

While before the CDA the government could read what they liked over the 
net, they really couldn't do much about it, because if they did, the ACLU 
and friends would've swooped down like a pack of starving dogs and 
devoured them alive (not that that would've been a *bad* thing, mind 
you).  Now, there's no excuse, and nothing to stop them - they have the 
*LAW* on their side.

The CDA just makes it legal.  The government is actually very interested 
in the USPS and others providing service over the net, because it makes 
their jobs a hell of a lot easier.  This "child pornography" argument is 
just a red herring - there has ALWAYS been this type of thing around, and 
always will be.  I notice much is made regarding legislating morality, 
but nothing is being said about the millions of tons of cocaine and 
heroin that the government brings in and sells to folks.  When people 
realize that the drug laws and this absurd "war on drugs" is just to 
drive the competition out of business - well, it's not going to be pretty.
And how about the enormous amounts of money made with the child slavery 
rings?  There is a LOT more of that going on than this "child porno" 
stuff - just ask Interpol.

As to the argument that we need cops and such - well, we did just fine 
for many years self-policing ourselves.  The spammer and such was either 
shouted down with mailbombs or just plain ignored.  Now, Suzie Q. gets an 
account, gets on IRC, and gets messaged by some freshman with no life, 
gets upset, and suddenly it's a federal case, attendant with the press 
smelling blood in the water, the morality cops like CyberAngels coming 
out of the woodwork in an attempt to get press, and the government 
rubbing their collective hands together, knowing that crap like this is 
just one more small step towards a police state.

I heard someone the other day say "what do you call it when only the 
police have guns? - a police state!"  Made me think.
--
Ed Carp, N7EKG    			Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com
					214/993-3935 voicemail/digital pager
Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key		an88744@anon.penet.fi

"Past the wounds of childhood, past the fallen dreams and the broken families,
through the hurt and the loss and the agony only the night ever hears, is a
waiting soul.  Patient, permanent, abundant, it opens its infinite heart and
asks only one thing of you ... 'Remember who it is you really are.'"

                    -- "Losing Your Mind", Karen Alexander and Rick Boyes

The mark of a good conspiracy theory is its untestability.
		    -- Andrew Spring