Smart Tags or Dummy Tags | Optimizing Images for the Web | ASP vs PHP
Making an MS Access Database Secure | The ePublishing Enigma
Web Tolerance
by Charles E. Brown
The Internet reminds me of an American phenomenon none as the "California
Gold Rush".
People rushed westward not for the guarantee that they would become rich,
but for the promise of the opportunity to decide their own destiny.
Many people died on the wagon train heading westward the few that survived the attacks, thirst, starvation and sheer loneliness of the journey arrived in California only to die from collapsing mines, poisonous subterranean gasses, licentious diseases and murder.
Most who found something found fools gold and not everyone who found real gold got rich. The true hero's of the west were the everyday cowboys/girls, explorers, farmers, ranchers, and others who built and populated towns, engaged in trade and commerce and made the west livable.
The Internet is one of our newest and most dangerous yet potentially promising frontiers. Like the West, it does not promise that anyone will get rich or be safe, it merely offers the most valuable opportunity of all, the opportunity to create your own opportunities.
The US is a country composed of many states; those states are composed of many cities. Each city may have laws that govern within its region. The same holds true for each state and its ability to set up government to its precepts. However these laws can not and do not take precedence over the basic Federal laws that govern our country.
In a similar manner we have joined in league with other Nations to form a UN (United Nations) that creates guidelines for how countries are to behave towards each other with basic respect for human rights.
This body of International law makers realizes that there will be objectivity
on the part of each country, which is why we have international waterways
and international air space. Basically you must respect the laws of your country
at home and hold regard to the laws of other countries when abroad. However
when in international territory (air space, waterways) many laws can be completely
sidestepped as long as the actions involved don't violate a persons civil
and/or human rights.
For example:
If you go scuba diving in Miami and you find a gold coin (if you're actually crazy enough to declare it) you may end up turning it over to local authority. If it's deemed to belong to the province it may become their property (for a museum set up for public viewing). If it's deemed personal property, a period of time may be required to set aside an opportunity for someone to stake a claim. After such time has passed you may be deemed the rightful owner if stated by law.
However in international water a diver may find treasure in a sunken ship
and be able to claim the booty as his/her own (with certain exceptions). Spy
plains fly freely in international air-space taking photographs of whatever
their high-powered lenses can capture, but the second they cross a "no-fly-zone"
they are liable to become the victims of rocket attacks and could intentionally
or inadvertently cause a war.
The Internet in many ways has become "International Virtual Space".
Although there are no laws designating it as such, most lawmakers are treating
it as such. They are unsure what laws to enforce and where they should be
enforced.
This is due primarily to the fact that most of the laws dealing with the
Internet are warmed over versions of laws set aside to govern over other mediums.
Laws governing over TV, radio and literature are frequently used as platforms
from which Net laws are copied. However the fact that the Net changes faster
than all of the aforementioned mediums makes it virtually impossible to make
laws that effectively govern such a medium.
Most laws take years to go from conception to bill to law. The Net basically
reinvents itself every 6 months. Fads come and go and the protocols used to
propagate them come and go as well. So of what real value are the laws governing
the Net.
Look at it like this, according to most Net statisticians, at least 50 percent of Net traffic pertains to SEX and ALIENS. Like it or not, Porn is and will be available online. We have not removed it from society, therefore a belief that it's going away online is not realistic.
A sever is a lot like a supermarket. A grocery store gets to decide what products are and aren't on their shelves. Nobody can make them sell Spam if they choose not to, and anyone who want's to buy it may leave to do commerce with another store. In like manner Yahoo or anyone else is free to decide what type of material users can plop on their servers.
In similar fashion you have the right to start your own server (supermarket) and place pornographic material on it (provided it is in accordance with whatever laws pertain). However if the government tells you that you can not place that content on your own server then THAT is a violation of your freedom of speech. However, If you provide this content to anyone else, you open yourself up to laws that may govern and protect someone else's rights.
In other words if you open your own grocery store and place Spam on your
shelves and you sell Spam to customers you are opening yourself up to laws
that govern over the sell of perishable items. This brings the FDA, Board
of Health and God knows how many other heavy handed agencies into the mix.
A bad can of Spam (yes I know it's an oxymoron) may land you in hot Spam juice.
If you are operating under "due care" you may be obligated to ensure
that the shelf live of the product is adhered to. If you allow a can of Spam
to be available for sale past It's shelf life (not possible, Spam's DOA) then
you might find yourself open to all sorts of fines and punishments.
DA larger issue is the issue of enforcement. The Net is huge and growing daily. Most law enforcement bodies can't police drug trafficking to keep drugs out of (or in, depending on perspective) their country. This is despite the fact that trafficking is an operation that is a well-known and understood problem amongst law enforcement agencies. If we can stop it when we know exactly how it's accomplished, we have zero chance of battling the Net's problems, which are largely not even comprehendible.
You will see a plethora (sorry pleth) of laws in the day's to come but don't' be surprised if nothing changes. Catching and prosecuting a cyber offender is expensive and time consuming. Most countries have trouble affording the so-called "War on Drugs" let alone chasing some guy who's spaming (like I am with this post) or hacking IBM to show his skills.
In the past five years we have heard of about 12 high profile cases of Net fraud, hacking, virus authoring and other dubious arts. I can't speak for other countries but the US big shot attorneys aren't in a rush to jump on such a low profile bandwagon as that. US law makers eager to get their mug on TV for standing on an issue platform won't get much popular vote from such low exposure issues as viruses and Spam.
One final observation, Internet porn sites are amongst the most successful (combined financial acumen and longevity) on the Net. As long as there is money in drugs we will have drug trades. As long as there is money in porn, we will have porn web sites, regardless of laws.
Remember, we don't want too much government control over our new West. Therefore education and tolerance are the prescription that the e-doctor should prescribe to all patrons of the Net. If you are anti porn you can use the Web's power to spread your message of how porn is affecting the Web experience and how laws should be made to counter it's affects.
You can start a group and post a web site. Start and ezine and host a chat group. The same tools that are available to the porn enthusiast are available to the porn antagonist. And if all fails remember, we were not born with a monitor attached to eyelids and PC speakers embedded in our ears.
There's no keyboard permanently affixed to our fingertips and mouse wheel growing out of the palm of our hands. Our short-term memory is not composed of RAM and our long-term recall ability is not encumbered by MB limitations.
Our ability to think for ourselves is not governed over by a processors floating-point calculation and our heart doesn't pump OS kernel. Viagra may keep the joystick up but it in know way is this peripheral an optical one with a multiple array of button configurations (or so I've been told). When we speak the mic does not have to carry our voice to far off lands in real-time and the all-seeing-eye does not have to post our image to the 9am office video conference.
In fact, PC's aren't necessary at all, so you should make use of the most powerful piece of hardware of which your system is equipped, THE OFF SWITCH!
To access it, use the most powerful appendage your body came equipped with, that's right, give your computer THE FINGER!
ewmpsi