From: Steve Schear <azur@netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 09:42:25 +0800
To: chris_barr@cnet.com
Subject: Rating online content can work
Message-ID: <33D6B0D0.19D1@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Since the Supreme Court said the online world should be as free as
print, and no self-labeling system exists for magazines or newspapers,
why should the Net be any different?  I don't believe that a self-rating
system is either practical or desirable.  Enactment of any laws to put
teeth into Internet self-ratings will almost certainly run afoul of
Constitutional challenges, and without such laws compliance and thus
widespread acceptance is unlikely.

Quite full of youself, aren't you Mr. Barr?  I have no doubt that the
definition of what qualifies as a bona fide news organization is in the
eye of the beholder.  I certainly would not class CNET with any of the
major US newspapers, magazines nor the WSJ.  Be careful where you tread,
lest CNET and other Internet Content Coalition members be judged as
relatively no more than garage-shop operations unworthy of the
protections you so clearly covet.


--Steve

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