« Progressive Pipes | Main | Quantum Pozole » NYT Slams IRCA silly New York Times article contends that IRC chat rooms are evil because they can be used by *anybody* to communicate *anything*. Sorta like the telephone, no? NYT says: "The pirated copies of music, films, games and other software were generally distributed using a separate Internet file-transfer system, said a Justice Department spokesman, but the actual pirates generally used I.R.C. to communicate and coordinate with one another." Okay, consider this version: "The pirated copies of music, films, games and other software were generally distributed using a separate Internet file-transfer system, said a Justice Department spokesman, but the actual pirates generally used the telephone to communicate and coordinate with one another." Or this... "The whole idea behind I.R.C. is freedom of speech. There is really no structure on the Internet for policing I.R.C., and there are intentionally no rules. Obviously you're not allowed to hack the Pentagon, but there are no rules like 'You can't say this' or 'You can't do that.' " Replaced with "The whole idea behind the telephone is freedom of speech. There is really no structure ... for policing telephones, and there are intentionally no rules. Obviously you're not allowed to hack the Pentagon, but there are no rules like 'You can't say this' or 'You can't do that.' " The NYT can be pretty lame, and I'm not just saying that because they spelled my name wrong earlier this week. jon posted this at 8:51 PM |
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