Bill Gates on Freedom

kgutwin writes "Here's something I found interesting: Bill Gates on Freedom. A short essay by Bill Gates written for the 24 Hours of Democracy Project. For all the talk on Slashdot about freedom of speech and censoring on the Internet, I found it interesting to read Bill's ideas on the subject. Frankly, I had no idea his views could be so, well, agreeable." Unfortunately, the main reason that Microsoft and the telecommunications companies opposed the Communications Decency Act (which is what he's talking about) is that they were afraid they'd be sucked into enforcing it - having to act as censors themselves. Now that there's no danger of that, they no longer support free speech to any significant degree.

Comments

Duh

[Anonymous Coward]

Hello Captain Obvious. We're talking about a company that is embroiled in a battle with the US Government. Despite the obviousness of this as a question of monopoly power, MS has tried to position it as the government stepping on their freedom to innovate. Not too big of a step to get to freedom of speech. Despite the lengthy list of MS actions to the contrary, I think we all know that they are only interested in free speech when it serves their needs.

Bill isn't entirely evil =)

[WWWWolf]

For all the talk on Slashdot about freedom of speech and censoring on the Internet, I found it interesting to read Bill's ideas on the subject. Frankly, I had no idea his views could be so, well, agreeable.

Oh, Bill is not entirely loathable, you know... Personally, I couldn't agree more with his views on spam, for example. =)

Re:Gates delusional?

[OmegaDan]

Is that anything like the jack of speed?

The test.

[www.sorehands.com]

Everyone says they are for free speech!

Until you say something that they don't like!

If Microsoft was so much into free speech, why did they order the postings off of Slashdot?

Microsystems (the Cyber Patrol people) said that they believed in free speech and were against censorship. That CyberPatrol was there to prevent censorship on the internet. But, when they saw something they didn't like, they asked the courts to censor for them.

If you believe in free speech, it can't be just free speech for things that you agree with.

Re:The test.

[Zangezi]

Free speech / Free beer

Doesn't really say much

[Blue Weirdo]

It just states a rather well known conflict between parents need to protect their kids and free speech. Plus somewhat of a postition on the issue. Kinda disappointing. Now if he offered a solution that addresses both, that would be something worth reading.

Ancient History

[Siqnal 11]

Why don't we discuss some of his high school essays? This is from February, 1996!

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Re:Spam

[Technician]

I found it interesting he didn't mention the biggest spam fighting sites on the web, Junkbusters or MAPS in his spam message. He named a couple others I never heard of.

Gates delusional?

[billybob2001]

Now he's referring to himself as the Bill of Rights

Surprising?

[buttfucker2000]

Not really.

He's not stupid. Basically he's trotted out some inoffensive lines - he doesn't want to alienate anyone else.

In addition, his views are in his commercial interest - he doesn't want an internet tied up with regulation, because he can't make as much money, and loses his commercial freedom if it is.

Private companies will almost always fight restrictions on their freedom.

I didn't find this surprising at all - even if he is an evil censor (which he's not), he's hardly going to say so (particularly when contributing to a project whose concern is freedom and democracy).

Hmm...

[Lazarus Short]

Gee, Bill is in favor of protecting our children from porn, but against restricting freedom of expression!

That's amazing!

I'll bet he's in favor of motherhood and apple pie, and against cannibalism too!

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