[Foundation-l] and what if...

[geni]

2008/12/12 David Moran <fordmadoxfraud at gmail.com>:
> I absolutely agree with Judson that we should be devoting exactly zero of
> our material and mental resources to thinking of ways to assist in the work
> of censors.  The problems presented in this example are almost entirely
> those of a national legislature comfortable with allowing private bodies to
> modify free speech for 95% of their citizens.
>
> FMF

They are not entirely comfortable with it. That is rather the problem.
The IWF exists because in 1996 Chief inspector Stephen French made it
clear that if ISPs didn't do something  about certain usenet groups he
would do something about those ISPs.

What we saw in action appears to be a derivative of the cleanfeed
system developed by BT a couple of years back at least partly because
the government was making noises about getting involved.

The government would probably go for a rather stricter filtering
system but is prepared to accept the IWF because it saves money and
means that negative PR is not directly pointed at the government.
Problem is that I'm not aware of anyone on the IWF committee who can
really be termed a free speech advocate.

-- 
geni