Re: Censorship on cypherpunks?, from The Netly News

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

On Tue, 12 Nov 1996, Bill Frantz wrote:
> There is a serious error here.  Gilmore did nothing to prevent Vulis from
> posting to the list.  He only prevented Vulis from receiving the list under
> his own name.  And, the as hominem attacks continue.

Yes, I understand this. It's quite obvious; being removed from the
subscriber list hasn't slowed Vulis at all. When I was writing the piece
Vulis seemed to have slowed his ad hominem attacks and instead was talking
about censorship (something that is within the charter of the list), but
perhaps the reprieve was only temporary. 

The point I was trying to make at the end and that I may not have done
very successfully is that it would be very difficult to prevent Vulis from
*posting* to the list under his name; he then could do it through
remailers. And blocking remailers is unacceptable. So how does one kick
someone else out of a forum where anonymous speech is allowed?

-Declan


> At  9:33 AM 11/12/96 -0800, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> >The Netly News
> >http://www.netlynews.com/
> >November 11, 1996
> >
> >Cypher-Censored
> >By Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
> >...
> >       That is, until recently, when Dimitri Vulis was given the boot.
> >   After he refused to stop posting flames, rants and uninspired personal
> >   attacks, Vulis was summarily removed from the mailing list.
> >   
> >...
> >   
> >       Thus began a debate over what the concept of censorship means in a
> >   forum devoted to opposing it. Did Gilmore have the right to show Vulis
> >   the virtual door? Or should he have let the ad hominem attacks
> >   continue, encouraging people to set their filters accordingly? The
> >   incident raises deeper questions about how a virtual community can
> >   prevent one person from ruining the forum for all and whether only
> >   government controls on expression can be called "censorship."
> 

> 
> 
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