Vernon Balbert
Usenet Poster
vbalbert@gmail.nospam.com
Posted on:
Aug 25, 2007, 1:04 PM
Post #9 of 19
(74 views)
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On 8/25/2007 9:49 AM, Dallas went clickity clack on the keyboard and
produced this interesting bit of text:
> On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:11:29 -0700, SnakeEyes wrote:
>
>> What is MI5?
>
> Can I assume "MI5" posted here again? (please answer)
>
> I ask because my ISP Earthlink recently switched over to supernews for
> Usenet and it seems they have filters in place.
>
> In a way this is a good thing. RAP was recently attacked by a sporge flood
> and supernews filtered almost all of the garbage out.
>
> But, I don't like having any "censorship" in my Usenet.. who knows... will
> supernews someday decide to filter out all the posts with "bad words".
It's one thing to remove messages that are cross-posted to every
newsgroup and it's another thing to remove messages on content. While
here in the U.S. we are granted free speech, it is by no means unlimited
and does need practical boundaries. The Supreme Court has ruled in the
past that "fighting words;" i.e. words intended to incite violent action
are not covered by the First Amendment. Neither is yelling "Fire!" in a
crowded movie house. (I've always wondered if it was okay to yell
"Movie!" in a crowded firehouse.) Censorship, in general, is bad, but
there are specific cases where it is warranted and the greater public
good has to be considered.
--
What do you *want* from us? We're *evil*. Evil!
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