3 ms·

It seems that politicians all over the world are starting to really press this issue, and even get the press to promote these ideas for them. I don't think they

It seems that politicians all over the world are starting to really press this issue, and even get the press to promote these ideas for them. I don't think they realize what they are about to start here. I think they underestimate how much people want the Internet to remain free, and how many want it to remain free. I feel the next few years will be very interesting. The TechDirt post was referring to this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/internet-controls-cameron-sarkozy http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/internet...

cheez 15y ago
I think you give people too much credit. People don't see the Internet as the new printing press. They see it as an improved entertainment device.
- cubicle67 15y ago
  Ask your local small business owner how much they appreciate being able to have their own website. Previously their options for letting people know about their business were newspaper advertising, yellow pages or TV.
  - cheez 15y ago
    Oh, don't worry, your website license will be part of a business registration package. Most people consider such things a minor inconvenience.
    - ygreek 15y ago
      In China you already have to apply for a website license (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license). And most people do not care about it very much. I once made a site with a friend from China, and he applied for the ICP license, even though the server was in the US and there was not a single word in Chinese on the site. In my friend's opinion it was a natural thing to do for a law abiding citizen.
      - cheez 15y ago
        China is a North American politician's wet dream.
  - arecibodrake 15y ago
    You might be surprised at how hard a sell web presence is in some areas...sigh
- pnathan 15y ago
  Agreed. This needs to be kept at the forefront of geek's minds: Farmville, Facebook, Hulu, and Twitter (and other entertainment devices) are the Internet. So long as the entertainment (circuses) flows, the masses will be happy. Regardless of what regulation happens!
46Bit 15y ago
I think the last year has been interesting. In it we've seen 3 strikes legislation undemocratically thrown onto the UK books with as good as no worthwhile debate, the USA starting to arbitrarily abuse their control of DNS, etc. People just don't give a damn until they realise what they've lost. Certainly techies are more and more getting turned against business & government by this, but the ordinary person ... as long as they can give all their personal info to Facebook, play videos on Youtube, and so forth, they won't care and I can't blame them.

cheez 15y ago

I think you give people too much credit. People don't see the Internet as the new printing press. They see it as an improved entertainment device.

cubicle67 15y ago
Ask your local small business owner how much they appreciate being able to have their own website. Previously their options for letting people know about their business were newspaper advertising, yellow pages or TV.
- cheez 15y ago
  Oh, don't worry, your website license will be part of a business registration package. Most people consider such things a minor inconvenience.
  - ygreek 15y ago
    In China you already have to apply for a website license (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICP_license). And most people do not care about it very much. I once made a site with a friend from China, and he applied for the ICP license, even though the server was in the US and there was not a single word in Chinese on the site. In my friend's opinion it was a natural thing to do for a law abiding citizen.
    - cheez 15y ago
      China is a North American politician's wet dream.
- arecibodrake 15y ago
  You might be surprised at how hard a sell web presence is in some areas...sigh
pnathan 15y ago
Agreed. This needs to be kept at the forefront of geek's minds: Farmville, Facebook, Hulu, and Twitter (and other entertainment devices) are the Internet. So long as the entertainment (circuses) flows, the masses will be happy. Regardless of what regulation happens!

46Bit 15y ago

I think the last year has been interesting. In it we've seen 3 strikes legislation undemocratically thrown onto the UK books with as good as no worthwhile debate, the USA starting to arbitrarily abuse their control of DNS, etc. People just don't give a damn until they realise what they've lost. Certainly techies are more and more getting turned against business & government by this, but the ordinary person ... as long as they can give all their personal info to Facebook, play videos on Youtube, and so forth, they won't care and I can't blame them.