RASCHKE  wrote 

> But, at a more important level, the difficulty lies with the failure oof  
> the mewdia to differentiate between something as esoteric and as shadowy 
> as USENET and the entirety of public internet applications.  What if TIME 
> had a cover story entitled "Sex in Magazines"?  Everyone would yawn, 
> because we know that there are dirty magazines and legitimate 
> magaazines.  But we don't seek to discredit magazines because some have 
> pictures of people in bondage.  Now tell me where I'm off the mark on 
> this observation...
> 
I don't think anyone's trying to discredit the Internet because of 
alt.sex newsgoups.

But to your earlier point, if Time magazine had published an article 
saying that 80%+ of magazine content was pornographic or erotic, there 
would be a lot of reaction. There would also probably be similar 
reaction - attacks on the methodology of the study, attacks on the 
credentials of those involved, attacks on the motivations of those 
involved. 

All of this, of course, distracts people from considering the nature
of the problem - how do you isolate and contain certain types of
content that now reside openly on the Internet? 

Spare me your "information wants to be free" and your "it's just like the 
stuff sold at the corner store" flames, please. 

If you are going to put your newspaper or magazine online, connected 
to the Internet, and if you are going to bundle your content with 
Internet access, you can't just wash your hands of the problems posed 
by undesirable content and walk away. Your customers are going to 
hold you accountable for ALL the content accessed through your 
service. 

So what are you going to do?

dw

        Donovan White

        Online Information Development and Design

        dwhite@iii.net           DonovanWhite@ichange.com

        (508) 597-5321           (508) 597-3285

------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #238
*********************************


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