Hmm, what about this

Post #25,445 by drewk 1/24/02 9:34:48 AM Reply	Hmm, what about this I believe however - that such distinctions won't be made, should this or that lawmaker wish to display the 'AOL experience' as justification for extending the censorship. Many religious groups would like everything to be childproof and childlike, according to their worldview. Yep. I know there are people who will do that. And I'll vote against them at every opportunity. But just because I may want to view porn, doesn't mean I should be able to force its availability on anyone who doesn't want it, any more than they can force its exclusion on me. AOL provides a filtered service. The filtering is explicity advertised as a benefit. People who use AOL either use it because of the filtering, as BeeP has said; or they use it in spite of the filtering because AOL also provides some other service, as Norm has said of his friend. We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link\|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html\|Thomas Friedman]
Post #25,674 by Ashton 1/25/02 8:29:34 AM Reply	Nothing can legally be done 'to' AOL, nor should (need) it be (yet?) I question the idea of aiding them in $ or spirit to emulate BillyCo, for all obvious and some subtle reasons. The idea of fighting one masssive wart on the world's ass by inducing a boil on the other cheek - intuitively sucks. Is analysis needed? Imagining that AOL cannot become as oppressive in its own way and as example for legislative skullduggery - seems as absurd as.. continuing to imagine that "the market will correct itself" - would seem to Ed Curry. Oh well. It won't happen on my shift. A.
Post #25,718 by nking 1/25/02 1:01:41 PM Reply	Of course it cannot because so far a majority of our laws benefit the corps out there, rather than the citizens. With the exception of antitrust laws, and others like the food and drug laws, etc. But what if AOL bought out Sprint or MCI/Worlcom? What if AT&T and AOL merge? What if AOL and Sony merge? Many New Internet Computers have failed, and many companies have tried to make Internet appliances and failed. Eventually some company is going to learn from those mistakes and make one that will not fail. The only way to beat Microsoft is to make a platform with open standards that anyone can use, and find a way to market it to the masses as something better than Microsoft can make. So far, no company or group has done that yet. "Will code Visual BASIC for cash."

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