TITLE: Regulation and Governance of the Internet (Chapter 19)

AMAZON LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233232091&sr=1-1

QUOTATION: Degrading Internet performance will not obviously harm many people very much, depending of course on the degradation. Most of us could wait a little longer when searching or downloading without much of a diminution of our living standards

LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:

1. I want to know the regulation and governance of the internet
2. I want to understand the internet regulation: normative issues.
3. I want to know what Censorship is.
4. I want to determine internet regulation: moral arguments.
5. I want to know Regulation across Legal Jurisdiction.

REACTION:

The Internet has, in a relatively short time, become an essential instrument for today’s society. As of early 2005, the Internet is thought to include: an estimated 750 million users worldwide; an estimated electronic commerce turnover of US$1 billion, which is projected to rise rapidly; a major social impact in education, health, government, and other areas of activity; cybercrime, such as fraud, gambling, pornography, and ID theft; misuse and abuse in the form of malicious code and spam

This situation is particularly problematic for developing countries, which generally lack ownership of Tier 1 infrastructure and are often in a poor position to negotiate favorable access rates. By some accounts, ISPs in the Asia-Pacific region paid companies in the United States US$ 5 billion in “reverse subsidies” in 2000; in 2002, it was estimated that African ISPs were paying US$ 500 million a year. One commentator, writing on access in Africa, argues that “the existence of these reverse subsidies is the single largest factor contributing to high bandwidth costs”.

It should be noted that not everyone would agree with that statement, and that high international access costs are not by any means the only reason for high local access costs. A related – indeed, in a sense, the underlying – problem is the general lack of good local content in many developing countries. It is this shortage of local content, stored on local servers, that leads to high international connectivity costs as users are forced to access sites and information stored outside the country.

LESSON LEARNED:

-          Proposals by governments to regulate content on the Internet are often hotly contested, at least in liberal democratic countries

-          The Internet is not spoken about only as a type of medium but often as a living space in which people work, play, and shop, socialize, and so on.

-          A strong moral case can be made for regulating the content of the Internet, but there is also a strong case that such regulation cannot be very effective and comes at a price in Internet performance.

INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:

1. How to find the Universal access is frequently taken to mean access across geographic areas?
2. What are the digital divide, to refer to the need for equitable access?
3. How to find the rich and poor between countries?
4. How should universal access include support services?
5. Why does plagiarism matter?