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	Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard


On Sun, 29 Sep 1996, Christopher Harper wrote:

> Colleagues and Friends,
> 
> The Virtual Girlfriend and Virtual Boyfriend software have some of the 
> hottest, sexiest graphics out there.  And with a Soundblaster or
> compatible 
> card, you can actually hear their voice as they talk to you. This is the
> first adult software title that was designed for both heterosexual and
> homosexual people. 
> 
> Questions:  
> 
> 1.  I have recently found sites such as "Death News," which presents
> video materials of killings.  I have found listings of pornographic
> sites in major PC publications.  What, if any, restrictions are needed?  

There several different catagories of media, all of which are already
currently governed by certain forms of law.  These were originally put
into place for the video industry, but probably apply to other industries
of the internet as well.

It is not illegal to publish materials containing acts of consenting
adults.  If one commits a felony, including rape, murder, assault, or
kidnapping (bondage of nonconsetual adult).  The material can be used to
prosecute the producers, the existing copies can be taken out of
circulation, and the copyright can be voided.  In addition, proceeds can
be seized by the government.

Distribution of adult material is not illegal.  It is not illegal to rent
a video in a county where zoning laws allow adult media stores and view it
in the privacy of your own home even though you are not zoned for XXX.
The internet only changes the media of delivery.

In addition, you are protected against onsolicited material (spam e-mail),
but most of the content you would receive would require you to request
the material.  The announcement you received was legal, but will likely
result in returns of 2 megabyte "garbagefile" return messages.  I have a
few very high resolution jpeg files for this purpose.  Some religeous
organizations are returning entire "tracts" to these types of people.

Generally, adult material is very profitable.  Most sites want credit
cards and a statement of eligibility to receive the material (I am over
21, will not be offended by the material, and will not redistribute the
material).  Most sites also want credit card, First Virtual, or E-Cash
information as well.  All of these can be traced to confirm that the cards
are owned by an adult and can be confirmed by the card owner to be
legitimate charges.

Most web sites put a Sex, Pornography... line into
the HTML headers.  This serves two perposes.  It insures an unusually high
score for those searching for such material and provides a target for
filters which intend to block such material.

> 2. What, if any, privacy should a user have or expect?
Much of this is a function of the ISP, client software used, and the
security of the client machine.  Exchange of encrypted e-mail is
relatively secure.  Leaving a history list on a unix workstation that also
functions as an NFS server leaves your entire query history available to
employers, coworkers, and even janitors.

> 3. How much distortion occurs on the Internet with respect to news and
> information?  

How much would you like.  The accruacy and reliability of content ranges
from the incredible tales on alt.sex.bizarre to fairly acurate "hard
facts" on alt.sex.wizards.  A web server/site such as Dow Jones' Wall
Street Journal Interactive Edition is likely to be highly credible.  The
most "flat" news comes off of real-time feed services such as DowVision,
Reality On-Line, or Standard & Poor's MarketScope.

> 4. How self-correcting is the Internet and the WWW with respect to that
> information?

Again, the culture varies depending on the community.  A bondage-lover's
chat room will probably be complete fantasy.  Nothing would be real.  A
conversation on comp.arch is likely to be excruciatingly accurate.  One
can get incredibly accurate information about Operating Systems and
Applications (Including the ugly stuff) from Internet Newsgroups that
cannot be obtained through any print publication (If Byte published the
top 10 problems with Windows 95, Microsoft would pull several full page
ads in the following edition).

The interesting thing is that most newsgroups have a remarkable integrity.
They are quick to challenge "hype" and quick to demand verification of
"flames".  I would rather have my son learn the "facts of life" from a
newsgroup on alt.sex.wizards than from the other 7th grade boys in his
locker room.  My sister got pregnant because her boyfriend actually
believed, at 18 years old, that he only needed to use a condom during her
period.  My parents had never bothered to explaind these issues to her and
she was pregnant at 14.  I had 2 cousins who killed themselves because
nobody bothered to tell them that part of going through puberty was
hormonally generated lust.  They knew they were going to hell if they
couldn't keep their hearts pure, so they killed themselves while they were
still "innocent".

Cybersex is just words and pictures on a screen.  Maybe we should require
teenagers to get some cybersex "checkups" before they try the "real
thing".

We live in a culture where sex is not only fatal, but it can result in a
slow, agonizing death that takes 20 years to complete.  We have viruses
such as herpes and clymidia that can infect multiple generations or cause
permenant sterility.

We have tampered with the laws of nature by attempting to keep our
children in sexual diapers through the peak of their breeding period.
God put a little time-bomb called the ptuitary gland into our bodies
and set it to go off at somewhere between the ages of 12 and 16 years old.
In our zeal to "create a better life for our children", we have utilized
terror, guilt, shame, gluttony, sloth, and greed to prevent a natural
process from taking it's natural course.  

For 50,000 years, a culture would put a boy through the "Rites of
Manhood", which may include proving courage, integrity, and worthiness,
and often included circumcision, babtizm, or confirmation of babtism. 
Shortly after this, the community would introduce him to the bride
arranged for by his parents, and the young man would be coupled.  The
community would support him, train him through apprenticeship, and
the extended family would teach the couple how to raise children.

In our "Modern" and "Civilized" culture, we have used terror (visions
of hell's fire, crucifixion, and torture of the inquizition come to mind),
guilt (you are an animal if you can't keep your thoughts and actions
pure), greed (don't you want to grow up and make a six-figure income so
that you can have a really beautiful woman), gluttony (hear eat this
gallon of ice cream so that you'll be so fat you won't have to deal with
those horrible sexual advances), sloth (you only need to take a shower
saturday night (so you'll be clean for church).  We have a substantial
portion of the "Baby Boomer" generation that is turning 40 and in a panic
because they still haven't landed a "family man".

Of course, God didn't put an "off Switch" on the pituitary gland, so the
hormones rage anyway.  The sexually frustrated teenager begins to
experience undirected fantasies.  Suddenly sexual feelings are triggered
by fear (taking a kissing date to a horror film).  Even those scenes from
the inquisition become an erotic experience.  Since there is no one
directing these sexual fantasies, expressions and associations get linked
up in an incredible set of variations.  Eventually a highly developed
network of "Kinks" develop, until "normal" sexual experience is not even
part of the menu.

Because we have gone against the original design, we end up with "kinky"
people having pathalogical sexual patterns that range from the perverse to
the completely bizarre.  Of course, due to the structure of repression
that generated this pathological sexuality in the first place, we end up
unable to communicate even the mildest of sexual preferences, let alone
the "Graver" (the one you will take to your grave).  Within this context
couples attempt to "Date" (shop around for a mate based on irrelevant
criteria such as appearance, income, type of car driven, label of the
clothing, and various "status" factors.  Then they get into a committed
relationship and get married, often keeping the darkest secrets until
after the wedding.

After the wedding, the "Kinks" begin to manifest themselves.  She thinks
it's best after she's provoked him into a fight.  He thinks it's best when
she's pissed of because he's 2 hours late, and smells of gin.  They like
a bit of chemistry with their sex, cocaine, marajuana, alcohol, prozac,
valium, or just a good old adrenalin rush from a rage of anger.  Quite
literally, they can't even relate to the experience of "the real thing".
The concept of mutually satisfying sexual relationship based on love,
intimacy, and partnership is as incongruous as "love your enemy" on a
battlefield.

Add in the context of children and suddenly, there isn't even time or
space for the kinks.  After inoring the fact that the marriage has become
platonic, they seek other outlets.  Workaholism, affairs, prostitutes,
daytime lovers, and masturbation become poor substitutes for a mutually
satisfying marital/sexual relationship.  Eventually, families become
completely dysfunctional, divorce, estrangement, and loss of family
members (usually paternal role) result in deep feelings of guilt, shame,
and fear, all of which prepares the next generation for the cycle of hate.

We created this mess.  We are caught in a cycle of dysfunctional families.
The internet has the capability to help people break the cycle.  By being
able to communicate with people anonymously, over e-mail, they get the
confidence to consult a therapist, marriage councillor, or minister.
Eventually they get the support and the courage to get support from their
spouses, and to find out what special needs their spouses have been
witholding.  Often, couples are able to discover the "programming" of
their partner and interact with it in a responsible manner.

Many people are discovering that the greatest part of the internet is that
they can evaluate and be evaluated, not by the shape of their bodies or
the cut of their clothes, or the features of their face, but rather on
their innermost passions, desires, and fantasies.  Often, people are
willing to say things on the electronic page that they couldn't say
anywhere else.  They have the courage to be honest with themselves and
others.

The greatest possibility of the internet is that it provides the medium of
communication where the consumer can get exactly what she wants from the
vendor.  This could be anything from a sequined minidress in size 18 to a
man who enjoys wrestling in "Lime Jello" (yes there is a woman who
actually shopped for and got such a man).  In effect, one woman's
perversion is another woman's wildest fantasy.

> 5. How can one verify the information on the Internet, including
> government information?

In many cases, content on a news group should be treated as any other "hot
tip".  You contact the author for conformation and do follow-up.  This is
the distiction between the freely conducted conversations of a newsgroup
and the quality journalism of an on-line publication.  Many times people
will actually use commentary gleaned from searches of internet newsgroups
as part of their research.  Infoseek offers a substantial archive for a
relatively modest price.

> 6.  What other problems exist on the Internet and the WWW for news and
> information?
> 
> I am not a prude.  Been there.  Done that.  Just want to know what
> people think.  
> 
> Christopher Harper	     Associate Professor
> New York University  Department of Journalism
> 212-998-3846	             http://pages.nyu.edu/~harperc	
> 
> "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
> there."
>   - Will Rogers
> +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
> Posted to ONLINE-NEWSPAPERS. Made possible by Nando.net, http://www.nando.net
> 


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Thu Oct  3 02:10:13 1996
Status: O
X-Status: 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.sys.powerpc.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.sys.next.advocacy