Re: HTTP Futures

Fisher Mark ([email protected])
Tue, 06 Dec 94 06:01:00 PST

Marc Salomon writes in <[email protected]>:
>simon writes:
>|Despite my mail address, can I just say that I don't plan to add any
>|censorship facilities ot HTTP-NG.
>
>Seems to me like this is an issue of concern mainly to those in North
>America, and that the rest of the civilized world both pays little
>attention to such pre-emptive attempts to control the flow of content,
>and would rather focus its creative energies on more pressing issues.

If you restrict the discussion to the "First World" European industrial
democracies, I agree with you. This is but a small fraction of the world's
population -- China alone (a communist dictatorship) contains 20% of the
world population. Even authoritarian regimes in general try to control
information access whether by press, TV, or computer.

Alas, even industrial democracies have the habit of restricting access to
entertainment products, whether because of offensive content (a US
preoccupation) or because of NPH (Not Produced Here). Before I get flamed,
I should state that I know Sturgeon's Law applies to US entertainment
products ("90% of everything is crap"); the point is adults should use their
own crap detectors rather than having their government decide for them what
is and is not worthwhile entertainment.

This is a *World-Wide* Web, after all...
======================================================================
Mark Fisher Thomson Consumer Electronics
[email protected] Indianapolis, IN

"Just as you should not underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon
traveling 65 mph filled with 8mm tapes, you should not overestimate
the bandwidth of FTP by mail."