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[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

01-16-97. Reuters:
 
"Unstoppable Internet will defy controls"

 Governments which seek to restrain the freedom of speech and tax 
 the vast electronic commerce spawned by the Internet will almost certainly 
 be wasting their time, experts say, and that any attempt to control 
 traffic over the Internet will be futile. Governments in China, Burma and 
 Singapore have already tried to discipline this on-line activity with 
 minimal success.

 Dr Bob Glass of Sun Microsystems Inc said any attempt by governments to 
 curtail any of this would be a waste of time. Not even the most powerful 
 computers will be able to effectively patrol the world's telephone lines. 
 Individual computer experts will always be one step ahead.

 "Big brother is out there trying to monitor this, but I don't think they're
 competent enough," he said. "Government is not really aware of the
 magnitude of money exchange on the web, but there's really not much they
 can do about it."

 Professor Patrick Purcell from London's Imperial College describes the
 Internet as a highly subversive phenomenom for international
 telecommunications, for a nation's state security and for international
 commerce.

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