Re: [Bug-gne]the problem of illegal content vs. freedom

[Hook]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
> Mike Warren wrote:
> > Why would you have personal guilt because of someone else's essay?
>
> Mike,
>
> I think that the point you are missing is that there is a big difference
> between _censoring something_ and _refusing to support it_.
>
> I support -- strongly -- the right of anyone to espouse their
> political theories or historical theories or anything else.  But I do
> not choose to support their doing it, not with my time, my hard work,
> my money, my machines.  I think that many people feel this way, and
> quite justifiably so.
>
> I think it would be a terrible mistake for GNU to lend immediate and
> direct support to evil ideas.  This is not about censorship.  If
> holocaust deniers wish to espouse their theories, we will do nothing
> to stop them -- they can do it on their own time, with their own hard
> work, using their own money, on their own machines.
>
> But GNU should not serve articles advocating racism from GNU machines.
>
> I think that the naive dogma that editorial oversight is censorship
> really misses the point.

Jimbo, thanks. You said what I was trying to better than I managed. I feel
the same way that you do, and (as I've said here recently) I'm concerned
about a blinkered and ultimately naive view of what GNE should stand for.
(IMHO) GNE has to be accepted by the net-using public at large for it to
have validity beyond the usual free-software arena, and for that to happen
the project *has* to show that it's aware of it's social responsibilities. I
don't see much evidence of that here.

Paul