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Edited Edupage, 4 February 1997
From: IN%"[email protected]" 5-FEB-1997 01:10:14.09
To: IN%"[email protected]" "EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List"
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>Edupage, 4 February 1997. Edupage, a summary of news about information
>technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom, a
>Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
>seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
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>GATES SAYS OLD LAWS ARE GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE NET
>Microsoft's Bill Gates: "It's always surprising how old concepts carry over
>into the new medium. It's overly idealistic to act like, Oh, the Internet
>is the one place where people should be able to do whatever they wish:
>present child pornography, do scams, libel people, steal copyrighted
>material. Society's values have not changed fundamentally just because it's
>an Internet page. Take copyright. Sure, there should be some
>clarifications about copyright, but the old principles work surprisingly
>well in the new medium. Anybody who says you have to start over -- I don't
>agree with that." (George Feb 97)
Looks like he hasn't thought about enforcement problems, which
may fortunately prevent the application of unnecessary laws to the 'net.
>CULTURE CLASHES ON THE INTERNET
>At a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the issue of
>censorship on the Internet was debated from East/West perspectives, with the
>Eastern view represented by such countries as Singapore, Iran, and Egypt.
>Denmark foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen said, "Whenever you want to
>stop the free flow of information, you must ask yourself what is possible.
>The usual answer from politicians is we need international rules. I say,
>forget it. It won't happen." Iranian mathematics professor Mohammed
>Lasijani countered: "In the west, the issue is sometimes how to globalise
>liberalism: how to export an ideology. I am not a liberal, and I do not
>believe liberalism is the only way to a decent life." (Financial Times 4
>Feb 97)
Well, yes, neither did Adolf Hitler. Sorry, cultural differences
won't wash; individual liberties are more important than culture or
national sovreignty.
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