Auiucdcs.173 net.news utzoo!decvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!jerry Mon Dec 21 21:45:32 1981 More on Freedom of the Netwaves In order to defend/clarify myself and my installation: 1) The department of computer science is in an already delicate situation when it comes to its relationship with the university and the state. We cannot afford to open ourselves to criticism of the sort that could come out of having net.jokes.q on our system. 2) On the question of legislating morality, any government or community though laws, funding decisions, or social contact enforces some level of "morality". Communist as well as Capitalist countries, small communities as well as large make and enforce decisions on their members. Corporations act in the same manner. While it would be nice if all our sacred cows did not get stepped on by some authority, most people agree that some actions (e.g. genocide) should not be permitted. 3) A number of members of the department including myself think that part or all of net.jokes.q is objectionable and should not even be transmitted from the originating sites. On the other hand, a number of members feel that net.jokes.q should be available as a matter of principle. 4) My example of ethnic jokes as not totally objectionable was supposed to point out that dead babies are always gross while it is possible to make a nonobjectionable ethnic joke. At least, my German half hasn't objected to all the German jokes that I have heard. 5) I made the net.jokes.q decision for uiucdcs. I am not a member of the moral majority or any such group. I sincerely doubt that they would want a member who believes that possession of nuclear weapons regardless of the possessor's intentions is immoral, or someone who believes that the current governments of El Salvador and S. Korea should be replaced. Jerry Wall ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.