Re: Enforcing the CDA improperly may pervert Internet architecture

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

At 08:09 AM 4/9/96 -0500, Mike McNally wrote:

>I sent a letter to the Economist last year pointing this out after reading
>an article containing the offhand statement, "... and of course it is
>entirely feasible to control Internet content" (or something like that).
>I don't have those magic two letters at the front of my name though.  It
>seems so utterly obvious.  When you connect to an ISP via PPP or SLIP,
>all the ISP is doing is routing packets. 

Or as I said in my letter to the Economist on their article "Censoring
Cyberspace:"

*******************

You suggest that Internet Service Providers might be required to employ 
"stop lists" supplied by their national censors to block objectionable 
material.  The current focus is on banning smut.  But no doubt many 
nations will want to ban various political and religious views as well. 
 
Surely, you know that anyone with a direct (TCP/IP) connection to the 
Internet (all Windows95 owners, for example) is not dependent on service 
providers for anything beyond a physical connection.  Everyone who has 
such a local dial-in account is able to link to any site in the world at 
no additional cost.  No long distance phone calls are necessary.   

*********************

A lot of people who know nothing of the nets think that they can be
controlled "like magzines and newspapers" in the words of a Bell Atlantic
exec.  Like the Bavarian prosector, they will learn.

DCF