Re: Cyberporn on NPR today

>But I expect it to focus on the technology questions, not the shrill
>"Save our children from the plague..." hysteria.

Only two callers through, first one should have hung up when he heard
all of his arguments made (better) in the first half hour.  Second
caller asked whether the Pynchon mailing list he's on would have to
censor itself if the Exon ammendment passed (seemed a decent point -
succinct too).

The rest of the time was the same old political debate with a few
moments about Surfwatch.  Equal time given to the opposition, who
spoke about the horrors of unspeakable besiality, rape, etc.

-- 

---
Concurrent VLSI Arch. Group     545 Technology Sq., Rm. 610
MIT AI Lab                      Cambridge, MA 02139 (617)-253-0972

On Fri, 21 Jul 95 15:27:22 EDT, lethin@ai.mit.edu (Rich Lethin) wrote:

> Only two callers through, first one should have hung up when he heard
> all of his arguments made (better) in the first half hour.  Second
> caller asked whether the Pynchon mailing list he's on would have to
> censor itself if the Exon ammendment passed (seemed a decent point -
> succinct too).

A few details from caller # 2 himself:

=====================================================================
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 1995 17:58:49 -0500 (EST)
From: "David L. Pelovitz" <PELOVTZD@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Who's that?
To: pynchon-l@sfu.ca
 
> ok, who was on NPR's talk of the nation?
> good comments, man...you made the right point in the right way!

That was me.  And thank you.

For those not tuned in, the subject was obscenity/indecency
on the internet, and the government's attempts to
control it.  I asked if we as list members discussing
the works of a man who gets obscene and indecent on
occassion might be subjected to criminal prosecution
by citing the works to make a point here on the net.

The man arguing for restrictions suggested that
we better make sure this is an adults only board.
The man arguing against the Exon amendment
pointed out that we may not be able to discuss
Pynchon on the net because children might read it,
but anyone can buy it at the bookstore.
He ended up going back to the Pynchon example
to make his point after that.

BTW - I am writing an article on the recent censorship
movements on the e-zine enterzone.  I'll send the
URL and publication dates when I have them.

David Pelovitz - PELOVTZD@Afcluster.nyu.edu

==================================================================
Alan Westrope                  <awestrop@nyx10.cs.du.edu>
__________/|-,                 <adwestro@ouray.cudenver.edu>
   (_)    \|-'                  2.6.2 public key: finger / servers
PGP 0xB8359639:  D6 89 74 03 77 C8 2D 43   7C CA 6D 57 29 25 69 23