Re: AP story: Police look for Olympic bombing Internet link.

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

At 2:26 PM 8/3/96, Jonathan Corbet wrote:

>My local paper (a Knight-Ridder rag) printed this story -- unquestioned --
>as well.  Needless to say, I think a statement like this needs to be
>responded to.  Letters to the editor, folks!  Wouldn't it be nice to have a
>press that did a little more than print what the "authorities" have to say?
...
>Meanwhile, I have a question: as far as I know, no bombing has actually
>been tied to the Internet in any way.  Does anybody know otherwise?  Even
>though it's not really relevant to the principles of the debate here, it
>seems worth pointing out.

But, as I keep saying, this is not a very useful argument. Given that
bomb-makers get their information somewhere (encyclopedia articles, books,
Loompanics catalogs, etc.) and given that the Web is beginning to seriously
compete with these traditional sources, I have no doubts that the Net will
sooner rather than later be implicated in a bombing.

If one makes the arguments the the Net should not be regulated because it
has not been used to supply information for a crime, then what happens when
the Net *is* implicated? That particular argument then crumbles.

I prefer to argue it this way: "Sure, the Net could be used for information
on bombs. So could encyclopedias, books, "Time" and "Newsweek," and CNN. So
what? We don't throw out the First Amendment and our belief that people can
read and write what they want just because a few bombers may gain
knowledge. We don't shut down chemistry departments because bombers learn
about chemistry. And so on."

This is, I think, a more lasting and persuasive argument.

--Tim May

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search engines)