Randy, On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 4:52 AM, Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> wrote:
As soon as laws don't allow 'your network, your rules' anymore then anything can happen...
if you think that laws have allowed 'your network, your rules' any time in the last couple of decades, you should share what you are smoking.
This is certainly true. The internet is part of our society much like a public square is (borrowed expression). It's important to point out that the recent eG8 debates[1] on strict Internet regulation and a "civilized Internet", championed by Nicolas Sarkozy, is a view not shared by all governments, and any take-away from that get-together *must not* assume so. (It's not clear exactly what was proposed anyway, and consensus was not really there.) Certainly, a lot of people, as evident in the debate, do not wish to see more of the Sarkozy regulation. It's noteworthy that at the same time Sarkozy and a few other speak of decreasing Internet freedoms, Iran is moving forward with its closed-off Halal Internet (where are the, morally just, trade embargoes on selling Internet censorship equipment to certain countries, I wonder?). The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, had this opening announcement to the session "Internet for Democracy, a tool, a trap, or what?" at the EuroDIG 2011 which opened today: http://www.youtube.com/patrikhson#p/a/u/0/GLLpW4s7WTo Additionally, the Special Rapporteur to the UN on Freedom of Expression, Frank la Rue has this to say recently [2]: D. Disconnecting users from Internet access, including on the basis of violations of intellectual property rights law 49. While blocking and filtering measures deny access to certain content on the Internet, States have also taken measures to cut off access to the Internet entirely. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned by discussions regarding a centralized “on/off” control over Internet traffic. All is not lost. And right now is a *particularly* bad time to make any hasted moves in the wrong direction, I would say. Regards, Martin [1] http://stupid.domain.name/node/1348 [2] http://stupid.domain.name/node/1341