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Date: 1998-05-04
Netz: Jakobiner streiten-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- Netz: Jakobiner streiten Das Netz sei rein technisch als nicht kontrollierbar angelegt weshalb der Überwachungs/Staat den Kampf um die elektronische Frontier von vornherein verloren habe. Derlei Ansichten, wie sie John Perry Barlow, einer der digitalen Gründerväter (EFF) ungebrochen verbreitet, stösst auf zunehmende aggressive Kritik der jüngeren Jakobiner/Garde. Barlow hat wegen flames bereits die legendäre well.com Mailinglist verlassen & droht dies nun auch auf der renommierten nettime-list zu tun. The Continuing Rise of Internet Legislation Once thought impossible to censor, the Internet is being controlled through a combination of government legislation and corporate regulation, argues Julian McClements. Since its development the Internet has seemed to offer the prospect of a communications medium beyond the control of the world's governments. With just a PC and modem, people are able to download a vast and diverse quantity of information from anywhere in the world. Whether banned political literature or hard pornography, the dissemination of this material has evaded the legal controls that have shackled older media. But now the US Congress is considering new legislation and this time the online industry has conceded to the calls for state intervention. During the next six months Congress will debate over fifty bills proposing some kind of net regulation. Amongst them are: - The Prohibition of Internet Gambling Act, banning the acceptance of wagers over the Net. Convicted gamblers could face a $20,000 fine and up to four years in prison. - A new bill to prohibit commercial websites from distributing pornographic material "harmful to minors". Websites can avoid prosecution if they attempt to verify age by requiring visitors to present a credit card, debit account number or PIN before gaining access to the site. Dubbed by critics "CDA II", the bill has been formulated to address the constitutional objections which brought down its predecessor. - Legislation insisting that those schools and libraries must install filter software on all PCs used for web browsing if they receive federal funding for Internet connections. Although none of these bills have yet been passed the general consensus is that their progress is more likely to be affected by lobbying and judicial action than by technological obstacles. Once considered irrelevant to the bright new world of cyberspace, government legislation is now seen as essential to the continuing development of the Internet as a medium for commerce and information exchange. Some libertarians have argued that the networking technology underlying the Internet makes it intrinsically impossible for legal sanctions to be applied to web content. The transmission of all information over the Internet is split between many different channels, the sheer number of which make it impossible for any agency to stop a message by blocking one or more intervening points in the network. John Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, declared in his Digital Manifesto that governments did not "possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear". Governments have been caricatured as virtual King Canutes, vainly trying to stop an incoming sea of data by passing laws that are unenforcible. The collapse of the Communications and Decency Act in the US is cited as the classic example. Although struck down as unconstitutional, many free-speech advocates argued that the CDA would have quickly become irrelevant as millions of Internet users went to foreign sites for the material denied to them on American servers. What the digerati forget is that the Internet does not exist in some autonomous dimension but is dependent on a complex physical infrastructure maintained and administered by private corporations. Unlike the cyberfrontiersmen at the EFF, companies do expect regulation and it is at the corporate level that governments can affect what happens in cyberspace. By regulating the conduct of ISPs and corporate websites they will be able to constrain the freedoms of Internet users to access information and express themselves online. The fact that the US government is capable of regulating the world's most wired nation through the statute book should come as no surprise to those sceptical that political problems can be dispelled by technical fixes. The architecture of the Internet is no bona fide defence against state censorship. Instead it is stimulating the growth of a more sophisticated regime of regulation in which both government and the private sector participate. Technical arguments against Net censorship are not only untenable, they degrade the defence of online speech. Those who emphasize the technical obstacles to censorship do so to avoid actively engaging in the defence of free expression. This is because free speech is a political issue and politics is something that some would-be "libertarians" seem deeply uncomfortable with. ==================================== TIP 4 MB Webspace für ATS 50.- pro Monat, alles inklusive, abholbar sofort http://www.heimatseite.com - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- edited by Harkank published on: 1998-05-04 comments to office@quintessenz.at subscribe Newsletter - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- 
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