Re: questions raised about wc3 authority

the original poster of this message asked me to forward it to the group, 
which he intended to do.  Apparently, he does not have a sent mail 
mailbox in his mail program.  I neither agree nor disagree with the 
contents.  I am merely helping out an end user.

kelly 

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 10:59:03 -0500
From: Mike Burks <mburks952@worldnet.att.net>
To: Kelly Pierce <kelly@ripco.com>

All,
to me the issue is simple,  whether it be the issue of accessibility, and
filtering certainly affects that, or control of what the user sees, it
should be the users choice, not the government or the W3C or any other
organization.  The EFF, and the ISOC fight this at every turn, the W3C
should do the same.

There have always been those who would control the free exchange of ideas.
They wrap their tyranny in the cloak of noble purpose, but it is tyranny
none the less. We are told this in necessary to protect various aspects of
the population from harm.  Who is to decide?  And what will be their
motivation in this decisions? William Pitt pointed out that necessity is the
plea of tyrants.  Information control in whatever guise, is always useful to
those who would sustain their position by whatever means they can devise.
The Internet presents an unprecedented opportunity for the free exchange of
ideas, with the free exchange of ideas comes change.  Change is always a
threat... It is a threat in many ways and some of the concerns are
legitimate, and they must be dealt with.  However the control of the flow of
ideas and information is not an acceptable way to deal with the change that
is occurring.  It does not work, and it has never worked.

The W3C should have no part of this other than to discourage the control of
information in all of its supposedly noble guises.

Sincerely,

Michael R. Burks

Received on Monday, 19 January 1998 13:36:45 UTC