10.13.1. (Of peripheral importance to crypto themes, but important for
issues of coming legislation about the Net, attempts to
"regain control," etc. And a bit of a jumble of ideas, too.)
10.13.2. Many countries, many laws. Much of Usenet traffic presumably
violates various laws in Iran, China, France, Zaire, and the
U.S., to name f ew places which have laws about what thoughts
can be expressed.
10.13.3. Will this ever result in attempts to shut down Usenet, or at
least the feeds into various countries?
10.13.4. On the subject of Usenet possibly being shut-down in the U.K.
(a recent rumor, unsubstantiated), this comment: " What you
have to grasp is that USENET type networks and the whole
structure of the law on publshing are fundamentally
incompatiable. With USENT anyone can untracably distribute
pornographic, libelous, blasphemous, copyright or even
officially secret information. Now, which do you think HMG
and, for that matter, the overwhealming majority of oridnary
people in this country think is most important. USENET or
those laws?" [Malcolm McMahon, malcolm@geog.leeds.ac.uk,
comp.org.eff.talk, 1994--08-26]
10.13.5. Will it succeed? Not completely, as e-mail, gopher, the Web,
etc., still offers access. But the effects could reach most
casual users, and certainly affect the structure as we know
it today.
10.13.6. Will crypto help? Not directly--see above.
By Tim May, see README
HTML by Jonathan Rochkind