Alt.Sex.Bondage Is Closed. Should We Be Scared?
The Net is fast becoming a global free-speech battleground
This article is for subscribers only.
Bondage. Blondes. Bestiality. Even Barney. (Don't ask.) Subscribers to CompuServe Inc. could indulge all these passions and more--until Dec. 28. Then, without warning, the online service provider cut off access to more than 200 such forums and picture databases distributed over the Internet. Pornography was not computing.
It was a defining moment in cyberspace, where information providers and distributors are hurtling toward a series of confrontations that could reshape their intellectual, moral, and commercial boundaries. As millions of people around the globe plug into the Internet and commercial online services, many governments--unnerved by the prospect of uncontrolled, grass-roots communications--are readying their regulatory guns.