Re: Feinstein wants controls on Internet, Books

[Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>]

At 02:26 AM 7/29/96 -0700, tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote:
>One of my senators, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is now arguing on CNN for
>controls on information put on the Internet, on censorship of books and
>articles describing how pipe bombs work, and for making it easier to get
>wiretaps against those suspected of committing thought crimes.

Unlike many pro-censorship ideas from your Congresscritters and fedcops,
Federal courts have dealt with this one, at least for magazines.
"The Progressive" wanted to publish the plans for hydrogen bombs
a few years back, and a federal district court issued a restraining order
to prevent publication.  Another magazine published the article,
and a federal appeals court dismissed the case.  (United States v. The
Progressive, 467 F.Supp. 990 (W.D. Wis.), dismissed without opinion, 
610 F.2d 819 (7th Cir. 1979).)   Prior restraint is extremely difficult
to get away with, and when the information is already widely available,
such as simple pipe bombs, it's just not tenable.


Now, there are subtleties to building them that may require 
some amount of thought, rather than being totally obvious to the builder,
and there are things that are obvious but are difficult to do.

For instance, say you, hypothetically, wanted to blow up your government's
legislative building.  You'd obviously want to pick a dark and stormy night,
say early in November, and you'd sneak into the basement with barrels
of gunpowder.  You'd use a long, slow-burning fuse, so it would blow up
the next day when they're in session, but after lighting it you'd still
run away very fast just in case your fuse speeds up on you.  The obvious
thing you'd need to do is to NOT GET CAUGHT LIKE THE LAST FOOL WHO TRIED IT.
However, if you do get caught, maybe you'll end up with your name in lights
and people will set off firecrackers in your honor every fall,
while if you don't get caught you won't be personally famous. Tough choice:-)

Penny for the Guy?
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