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Gates on Copyright; Censorship International, etc

>From Edupage - three articles of interest
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Edupage, 4 February 1997.  Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom, a
Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
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GATES SAYS OLD LAWS ARE GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE NET
Microsoft's Bill Gates:  "It's always surprising how old concepts carry over
into the new medium.  It's overly idealistic to act like, Oh, the Internet
is the one place where people should be able to do whatever they wish:
present child pornography, do scams, libel people, steal copyrighted
material.  Society's values have not changed fundamentally just because it's
an Internet page.  Take copyright.  Sure, there should be some
clarifications about copyright, but the old principles work surprisingly
well in the new medium.  Anybody who says you have to start over -- I don't
agree with that."  (George Feb 97)

CULTURE CLASHES ON THE INTERNET
At a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the issue of
censorship on the Internet was debated from East/West perspectives, with the
Eastern view represented by such countries as Singapore, Iran, and Egypt.
Denmark foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen said, "Whenever you want to
stop the free flow of information, you must ask yourself what is possible.
The usual answer from politicians is we need international rules.  I say,
forget it.  It won't happen."  Iranian mathematics professor Mohammed
Lasijani countered:  "In the west, the issue is sometimes how to globalise
liberalism:  how to export an ideology.  I am not a liberal, and I do not
believe liberalism is the only way to a decent life."  (Financial Times 4
Feb 97)

GATES AND GROVE ON GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft's Bill Gates and Intel's Andy Grove told the World Economic Forum
audience in Davos that governments have a role to play in increasing the
spread and use of new technology -- not as an active player but simply as a
role model.  They want the government's role to be improving the education
system, using new technology internally, and making sure the proper
infrastructure is in place, rather than directly funding research or
legislating its use.  (Toronto Globe & Mail 4 Feb 97)