[Forwarded with permission. Bruce Taylor is the president of the National Law Center for Children and Families and is widely credited with crafting the Communications Decency Act. Earlier this month, he represented members of Congress in defending the COPA anti-erotica law: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-948118.html Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03909.html --Declan] --- From: "Bruce Taylor" <BATaylorEsqat_private> To: "declan" <declanat_private> Subject: Re: News Corp's chief Chernin is right- porn and pirates poison progress Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 22:07:43 -0400 Hi, Dec. As you know, I've been crabbing since 95 that porn and crime are not what the net needs and that you could do anything you want with the Internet and Congress would leave it alone if it wasn't run by pornographers and stalkers and anti-social misfits. Tell me it ain't so! I keep telling you that you who love the net should work to preserve the good uses of it and stop supporting those who bring down the heat on it, like the phony attack on the CDA and COPA by all those who wouldn't be affected by those laws so the porn syndicates could benefit from the ACLU's misdirected fund-raising frenzy of misrepresentations to the courts. Too bad the courts fell for it, but they can't be faulted entirely for listening to those who you netizens brought into court and said were the "experts" on the Internet and then told the courts that the net could do anything except comply with those laws and would just die if federal law imposed any restraints on the free flow of pornography, which is all those bills would affect if interpreted and applied as Congressional intent intended. I know your side thinks no laws is good laws, but this country and the Internet was built on a governmental system where good laws were imposed on all so that the bad folks can't stop the good folks from doing good work, like inventing and running the world and the Internet, too. Anyway, I haven't had a good rant since last year, but Mr. Chernin's rant ticked me off to the "what could have been" instead of "what a mess we're in" and I don't blame business and parents for holding off on the Internet while it's too hot to handle. The economy is suffering for lack of confidence and enthusiasm for all things Internet, so your side's "anarchy is bliss" strategy hasn't worked so perfectly, either, even though it's worked to fool many otherwise well-meaning judges into letting everyone have free reign. The cyber-punks may have the conch, but they haven't governed themselves or taken care of the best interests of the rest of us so wonderfully, in my humble opinion. Oh well, I know there're two sides to this one, too, but this is my side and it's nice to see a man like Mr. Chernin catching on to some of what we've been fighting about all these years. It's still fun to fight about it, even with you, my worthy adversary. Be good, fight fair, see ya, Bruce ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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