Re: CDA Court Challenge: Day #2 (fwd)

[Vincent Cate <vince@offshore.com.ai>]

Declan:
> I suggested to our attorney, Chris Hansen from the ACLU, that he
> clarify what percentage of newsgroups were moderated. On redirect,
> Hansen posed that question to Donna Hoffman of Vanderbilt University.
> She replied that most newsgroups are unmoderated. Later, Bradner of
> Harvard University added that moderated newsgroups amount to less
> than 10 percent of the total.

Another point is that the readers decide which moderated groups and
mailing lists they like.  If a moderator is no good people read other
groups. 

A good question might be "Is it the free market, or a government
commission, or Internet authority, that determines who gets to be a
moderator?" And then maybe, "Could anyone just make a newsgroup or mailing
list and be a moderator?"  And maybe, "In the future when it is easier to
pay for information on the Internet, is it reasonable to expect the amount
of effort that goes into editing and moderating to increase?" 

The key point that the free market provides editing when needed.  The
several companies that provide browsers that censor things for kids is the
free market "supply" to the "demand" of parents not wanting their kids to
see things. 

If the government really just must get involved, it could subsidize these
companies or this type of product.  :-)

  -  Vince
     vince@offshore.com.ai


PS  Some of us even go through the trouble to write a check and
    mail it in order to get an edited version of cypherpunks 
    called cp-lite. :-)