On 2/11/07, David Strauss
<david(a)fourkitchens.com> wrote:
Not only do I agree, but I believe a similar
issue surrounds fair use.
Accusations of U.S. centrism are indefensible when they're based on
restrictive laws in non-U.S. countries.
Now, that doesn't mean there aren't practical advantages to
accommodating other countries' needs, but the lack of doing so is hardly
"U.S. centrism."
The problem with that is the logical end point of that position is the
move the foundation and servers to Iran.
That's absurd. How does one go from "not changing to accommodate
restrictive laws from other countries is not U.S. centrism" to "we must
move our servers to Iran"?
I'm arguing that we should weigh the advantages of accommodating foreign
restrictions (further reach) with the disadvantages of changing the
content (esp. censorship). If we happen to decide that accommodating a
restriction isn't worth the changes to content, then we're still not
guilty of U.S. centrism. Accommodating Iran's requirements is clearly
out of the question.
U.S. centrism is borne of ignorance or willful exclusion. Neither is the
case here.