Hillary Clinton and the Cybersitter genre

[Thomas Dowling]

> Malls, stores, P.O.s, 7-11s, libraries will all have to get decoupled
from
> privacy, security and censorship liability before net access for the
rest of
> us starts to approximate the ubiquitous ease of telephones.

Isn't this the common carrier argument, backwards?  Telephones are
ubiquitous not becaue they have an impregnable system for enforcing
privacy and security, content filtering, or intellectual property
right,s etc., but because they have no system at all.  I could call you
on the phone and claim I was Bill Clinton--you don't see 60 Minutes
doing a story about that dire possibility.

Ma Bell and her offspring convinced everyone early on that they
absolutely were not responsible for the content they carried.  They
have successfully avoided user verification issues with the argument
that getting themselves into that job would serve to make them
responsible for the consequences of invalid user access.  And, Hey
Presto! they still own the lines that carry stuff from point A to point
B, and you don't hear anyone whining about how the phone companies
should filter the net to prevent minors from viewing pornography.

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu