[Prev| Next| Index ] 2/23/96, cjackson@scaffold.com, Beltsville, MD USA

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

     By Chris Jackson, cjackson@scaffold.com.

     The Internet has the potential to bring a disparate world
     together so that we can celebrate its diversity. The Internet and
     the World Wide Web in particular makes communication and
     information exchange so simple that existing borders are breaking
     down. What is beautiful to me may not appeal to others and vice
     versa. What is offensive to me may be art to another, but who am
     I to make that decision?

     With the vague decency standards in the recently passed
     Communications Decency Act (CDA) that potential is dramatically
     curtailed because now a moral judgement of the quality of speech
     has to be made so that no individual or group is offended (or law
     broken). This creates a situation in which different political
     groups can apply "filters" to what their populations can read. It
     prevents people from thinking and making judgements on their own
     and that is always a negative reaction.

     I don't want to see children hurt or listen to hate speech, but
     if "indecent" or "patently offensive" speech is restricted, then
     what is next? What about democratic political discussion? What
     about religious freedom? Technology can solve the filter problem
     giving consumers a choice of what they are exposed to, but
     government is treading on dangerous ground to attempt to regulate
     the available material on a medium that crosses borders. Which
     government will be next to restrict something from their
     population?

     I don't want to live in a bland, intolerant, politically correct
     world....


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