History is a wonderful thing. It allows us to study the mistakes of the past and in theory learn from those mistakes as civilization moves forward. We know for example that the Roman Empire rose from a few small villages in Italy to ruling the world, and then fell as those gains were squandered by corruption and greed. William L. Shirer in the Rise and Fall of Third Reich chronicles the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, to a force that conquered Europe and then declined as quickly again.
How will historians look back at our time now in 20 years, 50 years, even 2100 and beyond?
Very few would argue that the Internet has changed civilization as we know it. No other tool in the history of mankind has decentralized the distribution of information to such an extent, empowering individuals beyond ways that even people 30 years ago could ever have imagined.
And yet, for all the greatness the online world gives us all, have we now reached a peak? Is the Online Empire heading for a fall?
In Australia, the Federal Government is proposing legislation that will in effect censor online publishers, including bloggers by forcing all online content to be classified, an expensive and long process.
In France the Government has banned citizens taking pictures of events unless they are approved by the Government, and that further French based news sites will be subject to certification by the Government, potentially prohibiting the free speech of bloggers in France.
In the United States the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board endorsed a payment scheme for Web broadcasts that will either force streaming web stations out of the country, or out of business.
Of course there are many over examples of Governments world wide implementing laws that limit the rights of citizens online. Many nations not only limit what their citizens have access to online, but they prohibit what they can say as well.
The problem is that unlike the political movements of the 18th century to the mid 20th century that saw freedoms expand, there is a definite move towards prohibition of the very freedoms online that has underpinned much of the rise not only of the internet, but Western Democracies.
Borders no longer provide protection either. Consider the case of BetonSports Chief Executive David Carruthers, who was arrested in the United States on charges under US law for operating a business that was not only legally registered in the United Kingdom, but the shares of that business were traded on the London Stock Exchange.
In Italy, the company Placanica was charged under Italian law for services it provided legally in the United Kingdom.
In 2002, in Dow Jones & Co. Inc. v Gutnick, the High Court of Australia found that Dow Jones & Co could be sued for defamation under Australian Law for an online article published by Dow Jones residing on their servers in New Jersey, an article that was never physically published or hosted in Australia itself.
There is little doubt that freedom online is actually in decline as opposed to expanding.
I don’t personally subscribe to conspiracy theories, and my own personal politics tends to be neo-libertarian with a strong capitalist bent. And yet many of these laws and legal decisions can and do result in further power being taken away from the individual and handed to corporations who have the power and money to operate within the new layers of bureaucracy.
In saying that not all big business is bad. Indeed the wave of anti-big business sentiment in the Western World, particularly Australia is wrong on many levels, after all, your local big business is a small business that has gone well, and indeed we should encourage achievement, not stifle it. And yet there is little doubt that some big firms clearly act in a way that seeks only to enshrine their own positions whilst denying the same freedoms they had as they grew, the RIAA representing the big four record companies in the United States being a classic example.
The question for us all now though is will the decline end, or are we simply just passing the peak of online freedom and facing a long decline along the lines of the Roman Empire? That freedoms are being taken is not in dispute, but is it too late?
Martin Niemöller, Protestant Pastor and social activist famously wrote:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
I’d like to think it’s never too late for us to speak out. Whether you’re left of center, right of center or just don’t vote, we can and should be united in our defense of freedom. Let’s hope that in 20 years, 50 years or 2100 and beyond that historians don’t write about our time on earth now as the time that the online empire entered a terminal decline.
Originally posted on March 7, 2007 @ 12:34 am
I don’t think we have even passed the first stage of this “empire”. It’s a little bit of a stretch to compare it to the Roman Empire or Nazi Germany, although one can never hear Niemöller quote too often. I would say that the internet will become increasingly vetted by govt. and/or big business. In that sense, yes- the best days may be behind us. But I also feel, perhaps naively, that this “online empire” is our best chance for world peace. One can’t let this go without a Churchill quote (Hitler never conquered the UK, which is after all part of Europe!)-: “It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time…”
Mark,
good stuff here in the comments.
I agree online maybe the best hope for world peace.
I fully agree that the Internet is the best chance for world peace. And even though I quote or refer to Churchill in my writing from time to time, I fully disagree that we shouldn’t look too far ahead. While it sickens me to look far ahead wondering what might happen to online freedom, at the same time, I cannot fulfil Niemöller’s implied suggestion without looking forwards.
One country after another has been stealing an online freedom or another. In the US, web designers are being tried in court because they were involved in the design of a poker website. So it’s going on all over the world and it’s not going to stop, once blood has been tasted. Unless we look far ahead and speak out now.
Raj- I think that what Churchill meant was that rather than wasting energy on what might be, we need to (each in our own, best way) tackle the evils that are very real- now. As you say, the threat to online freedom is already upon us and if we don’t act, it will be our own faults.
Only the threat of obsessive regulation can legalize the freedom. It’s an action-reaction effect, but today online still is one of the bigger existing anarchies.
Some regulations won’t hurt. The liberty we know today (what liberty?) is an ongoing process. First there was anarchy, than rules came and then rules became less and less strict. The online world will evolve just as every other society and world peace might still be a dream, but the internet will spread democracy further and further in our world.
The internet today is what the Age of Enlightment”>Age of Enlightment was to the eighteenth century.
And the US presendential elections online campaigns are the evidence that the interrnet a still growing imperium is. A world created by intellectuals.
Great post Duncan. It’s time for everyone who is involved in online business and advocacy to be very mindful of the rights and freedoms that are being eroded bit by bit.
Franky,
I hear where you’re coming from but I still think we’ve reached the tipping point, sure, it might only be a couple of laws now, but there’s a trend that if any thing is growing in pace. You don’t always see the rot until the very end, indeed the Romans didn’t see their mistakes until quite late. These laws are chipping away bit by bit at the freedoms we currently have.
Duncan,
I entirely agree and the obsessive regulations period is right out there, but I hope b’land will realize that only we control how thight the regulations will be. The next 15 months virtually lend us all the power to destroy everything more.
I hope that the political bloggers will bring reasoning in their own campaigns, because they can ruin much. And sadly I must say here… it are political bloggers. Looks bad for us.
I deontologically don’t list them that high as what we always read among probloggers, be correct, disclose aso. Once a political blogger is launched… try to stop him.
It will be a though battle, but hasn’t that always been throughout history?
Reasoning will help us… the Enlightment didn’t only bring protest, no they also came with options to ameliorate.
Freedom, 200% pro, I believe in blogging… but we have to stay rational and sometimes we’ll also have to compromise.
Unless your name is Jobs, then today you can bring everyone freedom, make it widely spread, and in 3 years say ‘Actually freedom sucks’.
Oh no, wait that was DRM.
I just read your article and I also read the ebook, “The Rise and Fall of BetOnSports” by Hacksaw Hemingway and there is some good insight in there about the industry as a whole never took the initiative to establish relations with political sources because the industry just looked at the immediate returns instead of the long term investment. The book is at http://www.hacksawhemingway.com.