Re: [OT] Re: [OT] Re: .br blacklisted ?

[Matt Beland]

On Sunday 07 January 2001 21:24, Dan Hollis wrote:
> *This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(tm) Pro*
>
> On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> > You are suggesting that it is acceptable to implement technological
> > barriers to a minority expressing speech that is unacceptable to the
> > majority. This is not acceptable.
>
> See Rowan v. United States Post Office.
>
> *Your* right to free speech stops at *my* property.

Does it now? How interesting. You can prohibit people from saying things you 
don't like. Hmmm. I suppose that could be useful. I don't like (just as an 
example) any speech from or about people named Dan. Please cease and desist 
immediately or I will blackhole you, your server, your domain, and everyone 
and everything associated with it until the people rise up and kill everyone 
named Dan, or as an acceptable compromise, remove their ability to speak and 
or type, or force them to change their names. That's my right, it's my 
property. Morally wrong? Bah. Your right to prattle on about morality stops 
at my property. 

Point 1: Laws mean jack squat in this case. The lawmakers know little about 
the internet, and until they learn, the laws they pass will continue to be 
irrelevant, confusing, or contradictory. Even when they aren't, no society 
has ever managed a foolproof "unjust law filter". The existence of a law does 
not make that law good, correct, or even legal; reference prohibition, slave 
ownership, women's sufferage or the lack thereof, and roughly 40% of the US 
Tax Code referencing income tax. 

Point 2: Either "information wants to be free", has no physical existence or 
worth, and cannot be controlled, or it has existense, worth, and can be 
controlled as property. You can't have it both ways; either Spam is an 
undesirable side effect of the free flow of information, or information is 
not free and can be controlled. 

Isn't it amazing how some of the people who are so quick to yell when 
Microsoft or Oracle or the government of <insert nation name here> infringes 
on their rights/privacy/information are the first to block the flow of 
information in the name of the same?

>
> Under no circumstances does your right to free speech trump the rights of
> the unwilling recipient. Full Stop. End of story.
>
> -Dan
>
> -
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