Freedom And The Net
This article first appeared over on our affiliate's website -- Brass Knuckles Webzine. The original posting can be found here.
By:Archfiend
The internet is by default an adult medium and there are lots of sites out there than are not appropriate for your kids. Porn, sites on bomb building, hate groups, pedophiles, disturbing images, and every other horror imaginable. These are things that children should be protected from...by their parents.
But what about the idea that the website their child is on may be from a different country? What about the idea that their child chose to go the site? What about the fact that you can't set a website to only play certain content during the hours when children are likely in bed? It doesn't matter...."Someone has to do something!!"
Well there's no shortage of people who want to "do something." There are politicians in many countries who are eager to curry favor during election days, money grubbing lawyers willing to sue over anything, corporate lawyers who are willing to use their almost unlimited capital and resources to crush any opposition, over reaching judges law judges who's limited knowledge of the internet makes them really unqualified to make rulings concerning the net, religious groups that want to impose their moral beliefs about what can be said on everyone, etc, etc, etc.
A lot of people are actually frightened of the internet. You see behemoths like Microsoft and AOL for example are powerful, but they are easily controlled. They have certain standards they have to live up to, certain things they can never do or say, not only because it may offend their customers but because of the tight control politicians and lawyers keeps over them.
But the web isn't like that. There are websites with 10s and even hundreds of thousands of daily viewers run by handfuls of people or even single individuals. People who aren't pinned in by regulations, who could give a flying f**k about whether the general population out there finds them offensive or outside of the bounds of normal discourse and mores. This frightens a lot of people because they can't control it.
Because of this there are a lot of people out there that would like a tightly regulated internet. One where you fill out 50 pages of applications to get a website, where you have to be in compliance with complex multinational laws, where it costs thousands of dollars to set up a page, where your every movement is tracked by the government and corporations eager to sell you things. You see this would keep the "riff raff" off of the web. Basically we'd be back to a situation where easily controllable corporations would be running most of the websites.
The root cause of all this is our shaky belief in the value of free speech. Although everyone gives lip service to free speech there are a lot of people that would like to curtail it. All of them convince themselves that "xyz is the exception to the rule. It's too dangerous to allow access to." Porn shouldn't be accessible on the net because it endangers our kids (but what about the hundreds of millions of adults who want to see it)? Nazi paraphernalia shouldn't be allowed because some German may see it..and do who knows what (When you forbid people to even talk about something then you make it that much more attractive). People shouldn't be allowed to use Napster because it can be used to steal artists music (Then what about VCRS, dual cassette tape players, libraries, CD burners, or hell even cars, baseball bats, and leather gloves. All of them have legal uses but can be used by people operating illegally. Are we going to ban them all just like Napster)? People shouldn't be allowed to reverse engineer software because that's not fair (If it's illegal to reverse engineer software then that makes it impossible to know what other unwelcome additions companies are putting into their software. Embarrassing security flaws and tracking software are 2 things that been been often revealed in the past by reverse engineering). All encryption should have a backdoor than law enforcement should be allowed to use to get in. We can't allow criminals to be able to hide things from the police (What about ordinary citizens? Why can't they have conversations the government can't read)?
The really disturbing thing about all of this is the willingness of people to give up their freedom in return for what they think is safety. Trump up a crisis and people will agree to anything to stay "safe." Politicians aren't stupid, they strike when the iron is hot. An incident happens that catches the national attention and two days later they're announcing legislation to stop that very type of incident. Sure we may lose a little bit of our freedom, but we'll be safe. The people that oppose these draconian measure are immediately questioned. "What?!? You are opposed to this legislation?! Doesn't your health and safety matter to you?!? How can you stand up for those guys?!? What about the children?!?!" In reality, although we disagree with what people say, we should be willing to defend people's right to say it.
Among other things I personally I think...
- Napster should be legal
- Extra time for "hate crimes" should be dropped since it's basically a penalty for your thoughts.
- The KKK should be able to clean up a section of the highway just like everyone else.
- People should be able to buy and sell Nazi merchandise if they like.
- Religious groups should be allowed to have meetings in public schools after hours just like other groups.
- Reverse engineering of software should be legal
- Encryption should be secure, even from the government.
- Although I would not engage in environmental sexual harassment because I recognize the legal ramifications, I think the whole idea of someone being able to sue because they get called a "b*tch" or because someone has a swimsuit calendar up in their office is the biggest piece of kaka I've ever heard.
- Pornography should be legal and easily accessible by people on the net.
Now are all of these positions popular? Nope. A lot of people will disagree with my opinion on these issues vehemently. I loath Nazi's and racists for example, but that doesn't mean I believe they should be silenced. The very purpose of the first amendment is to protect unpopular speech. If we're not willing to allow people we disagree with to speak then what happens when people who disagree with us come into power? If even Nazis and members of the KKK can speak their minds that means you and I are safe to express our views without being censored by the government and the legal system.
We all have to be especially vigilant concerning the internet. For the most part the internet is wide open right now. It's international, it's largely unregulated, and it truly has a diversity of thought and opinion. For example, where else can someone from America talk in real time to another ordinary person is Russia, Japan, Israel, Panama, etc? Where else can ordinary people off of the street have an opportunity to write things that thousands of other people across the world can read? Is there anywhere else outside of a university where gaining knowledge and skills is so emphasized? I'd encourage everyone to dig in and fight for your freedom on the net. Write your congressman when bad legislation comes up for a vote, write your local newspaper standing up for free speech on the net, and don't hesitate to speak up when it becomes a topic of conversation. Your opinion does count and what you say can make a difference.
So stand up for your rights and the rights of other people online. If your freedom isn't worth fighting for..then what is?
1.) Script Kiddies: How to be one and be loathed by your peers. - Grifter
2.) Napster, MPAA, AOL and how stupid people in power will kill the first amendment.
- Dan
3.) Getting Started with SQL (part 2) - L33tdawg
4.) Freedom and The Net - Archfiend
5.) The Guide to Annoying People on ICQ - Archfiend
6.) Quantum Mechanics - Part 3 - Josette
7.) The Art of Programming - Dinesh Nair
