RE: Net Control is Thought Control

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 8:41 PM 1/10/96, David Mandl wrote:

>P.S.: Regarding limits on "freedom of speech" in the U.S., take a look
>at the long list Tim May posted a few months back.  (I was scoffing at
>Perry's claim that we had nearly complete freedom of speech in the
>U.S., and then Tim responded with much more detail.)

This may have been more than a "few" months back...maybe even more than
several. I'm not sure when I wrote this, and I have too many megs of past
messages to find it.

The gist (without examples right now) is that the U.S. has a truly stunning
amount of regulation of speech. Between regulation of professions,
restrictions on product claims, the whole mess of tort law, and the various
anti-discrimination and fairness laws, the only speech which is truly free
is that of penniless idiots spouting off in public parks.

The U.S. has few restrictions on speech in the form of prior restraint
(that is, words do not have to be cleared by censors or approval boards,
mostly), but a welter of post-speech sanctions.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."