NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Australian Court Finds Google Guilty of Deceptive Ad Tactics
On 4/3/2012 10:35 AM, Lauren Weinstein wrote: > > Australian Court Finds Google Guilty of Deceptive Ad Tactics > > http://j.mp/HbTq12 (PC Mag) > I can't emphasize enough how potentially dangerous this sort of > reasoning is to free speech on the Net generally. If courts are going > to hold search engines responsible for the content of materials that > they do not themselves generate but that their algorithms select and > display, the negative impacts could ultimately go far beyond ads, > directly to other forms of content broadly. These are just the sort of > perverse restrictions that various repressive individuals, > organizations, and governments would love to impose on us all to > control and dictate information availability. It's not just repressive governments. Almost the only country with anything remotely resembling free speech is the USA, and it's under near-continual assault here from the RIAA, MPAA, NSA, etc. Even most of Western Europe, that bastion of "liberal"ism(*), has serious limits on Internet speech. And is it any wonder? The Internet has been a very mixed blessing. Just think back 20 years, a year before the "Eternal September". Back then, the Internet was still run by the US DoD, and you didn't get access to it unless you: 1. worked for the US or a State Government, 2. worked for a defense contractor or a company with a large contract with the US Gov't, 3. were a faculty member or student at an accredited college. That was still a _lot_ of people: @! parties at SF Conventions were very crowded in the early 90s. But it was still an elite, and _in particular_ it was made up of people who had something to lose if they misbehaved. If you sent out spam or a provable libel, you could expect to lose your job -- or at least your Internet access, often after a highly unpleasant interview with your professor, TA, or the school's IT staff. Once a year we'd get a _few_ frosh who discovered "Make Money Fast" and thought it amusing (or profitable?) to send it out. And would quickly find out the consequences. When Robert Morris released the Internet Worm in 1988, he was quickly caught, fined $10,000, and put on probation for 3 years as well as 400 hours of community service. Aside from that, malware and spam were almost completely nonexistent. There was some trolling, but again social pressures tended to put a limit on that. You could lose your job, your network access, or be thrown out of college. So, of course, was freedom of speech. ANything you said came labeled with your employer (or school). If it was sufficiently unpopular (or just made your employer unhappy), you could lose your job. Students were mostly in a better situation, but they could still have their access yanked if their school's sysadmin got sufficiently annoyed. Look at the situation now. I delete roughly 5 spam messages a day. Those are the ones that make it past my ISP's filtering -- I suspect several hundred or thousand get dumped by Time-Warner's mail servers. And I have to wonder how many perfectly legitimate messages were accidentally deleted in the process. Copyright infringement and intentional defamation were also nearly nonexistent. Put up a copy of "I Will Always Love You" or "Schindler's List" and you'd be looking for work or expelled. Publicly accuse (name a famous person) of sexual depravity and you'd probably get the same. Now look: almost anything I want I can find somewhere. While Copyright Math is... highly questionable... there can be little doubt that significant sales are lost because you can download almost anything. Search for a restaurant or a lawyer, and the chances are you'll find at least one person badmouthing them -- not because of a bad experience with them, but simply in hopes of extorting money from them. On the good side, of course, I have friends all over the country who I can contact in seconds via email or IM. Every hobby and interest I have, I can find sites devoted to that subject. If I run into a word or acronym while watching "New Tricks," I can pause the playback and look it up via Onelook, Urban Dictionary, or Google. Thinking of trying a new restaurant? Look up their menu online, and also check the reviews (but watch out for the hidden promo raves on one hand and the pans that are extortion attempts on the other). Want to buy a printer? Check CNet and a few other sites to see what other people think of it. And almost anything that exists has an article on Wikipedia or some more specialized wiki. And the value of anonymous political speech can't be overemphasized. Repressive governments are finding they can't stop speech done through remailers, anonymizing proxies, etc., and even the Great Firewall of China leaks like a sieve if you're technically adept. So, overall the Internet is a good thing. But not without significant disads. (*) I use quotes because while most of Western Europe is liberal about sexual freedom, universal healthcare, and workers' rights, they are very _il_liberal about free speech, seeking to limit "hate speech," "defamation," and almost anything else that offends a sizable group of people. _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad