Untitled

Wednesday September 24th 2003 02:22 AM PST

I see that MSN has announced that they will be shutting down all chatrooms on their service in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and most of Asia (according to bbc). What is funny is the explanation. They say that they are making the move to avoid SPAM and to increase child safety on the internet. Ok, begin the rant. Microsoft is not doing this for the safety of children. Don't fuckin kid yourself. They're doing it because they need to cover their own ass. more and more children are approached in chatrooms by sick fucks and Microsoft doesn't want to be liable. I don't know HOW MUCH they already spend to moderate chat environments, but no matter how much money they throw at moderation, there is still a chance that something will happen. This has got to scare the shit out the lawyers at Microsoft. So their solution makes perfect sense, but everybody else thinks that this is about the kids. People are even stupid enough to say that this might affect free speech!! I know most people are stupid, but stupid and paranoid?!?!? Microsoft shutting down one of its "systems" can only make things BETTER. News flash people!! There are always going to be chat rooms. (if mcdonald's stopped making hamburgers, i think you might still be able to find other ways of getting a tasty (nasty) burger). There will always be IRC networks that people can chat in (and do a whole lot more too).

Comments:

Is IRC still out there? I remember reading about how IRC was under an attack from hackers that was severe enough to supposedly make it vanish forever (link). I dunno, Dave, sometimes I think you maybe have too much faith in things (either that or I don't have enough). Who would have thought Napter could get shut down, or that thousands of people could get sued for downloading music, or that cigarette companies could be held liable for basically just doing what they're in business to do, or that McDonald's could get sued for selling hamburgers or coffee that's too hot? Anyway, if AOL and Yahoo follow suit and shut down their chat rooms, that's effectively killing off I'm sure over 95% of the chatting that's going on out there (which might be a good thing lol). One would like to hope that the lawyers don't wield enough power to basically eliminate something that thousands of people enjoy just because whoever is providing the enjoyment might get sued, but unfortunately that's the world that we live in. People probably don't realize it when they file frivolous lawsuits to try to make a buck off some huge corporation, but in the end everyone else pays the price because the companies just realize its not worth the risk. I hope you're right that the lawyers can't just kill off the fun, but unfortunately they seem to be pretty skilled at doing it.

Posted by: Yams