Re: All my posts have been censored

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Steve N. wrote:

When people make strong statements this is to be expected. If MS isn't
up to the task of fairly hosting a usenet service perhaps they should
just shut down their newsgroup servers entirely and let everyone take
it somewhere else.

I post from news.individual.net, not from news.microsoft.com. Even if
Microsoft shuts down their servers the groups will continue to
exist--and they will thrive once everyone realizes that their own
newsserver carries them (every server I've ever used has carried them).

If Microsoft had wanted moderated groups, they should have set up these
groups as moderated. The other alternative would've been to close their
servers so that the groups were not loosed upon the world. It seems to
me they wanted to have their cake and eat it too--lots of exposure and
all the control. I find it infuriating that Microsoft engages in the
egregious practice of censoring a free net.

Finally, as to the libel business...

The preferred spelling in legal circles (and in the dictionary) is
"libelous" not "libellous."

This is usenet. The only people who squawk about libel on usenet are
loons and kooks, because only loons and kooks play the libel game.
Perhaps we should call in the loonwhackers from alt.usenet.kooks for a
second opinion. (Not really, it would be a mess, but the point is that
only people with a screw loose make libel an issue on usenet. Suck it
up. If it doesn't cause you economic loss, it's not really
actionable--which is to say, unless you've got unlimited funds, you'd
best forget about it, because your lawyer isn't going to take it on a
contingency basis. And if you are dumb enough to pay hourly rates, he's
going to laugh at you behind your back even while he takes your money. I
haven't read any of the documentation in the Keith-Smith v. Williams
case, but it sounds to me as if there were a bit more than just libel
involved, i.e., stalking; it will be interesting to see if the judgment
is appealed.)

If you can't take the heat of a free net, turn off your newsreader. I
don't like abusive posts, and I'm not fond of abusive people.
Furthermore, I'm pretty sensitive to abusive behavior, whether directed
towards me or others, and I don't consider Alias k/k/a @lias abusive by
any stretch of the imagination.

There's a big difference between being a straight-shooter who is
politically incorrect and being abusive.

Steve, I used your post as a springboard, because I agree with you
wholeheartedly, but it's not intended as a reply to you.

rl
--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be
the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than
under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may
sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those
who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do
so with the approval of their own conscience. C.S. Lewis


.

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