Fri, 20 Feb 2009 5:51a.m.
The internet is under siege. At the end of the month amendments to New Zealand copyright laws will allow internet service providers (ISPs) to close people’s accounts if they believe them to be downloading material that infringes copyright law.
Guidelines will prompt ISPs to give users three warnings, pompously known as “education notices”, before cutting off access. If the National government do not intervene all this will come into effect by the end of February.
British entertainer Stephen Fry has led the protest against these laws – asking users of social networking sites to black out their profile pictures in support a campaign run by http://creativefreedom.org.nz/.
The copyright debate is wide-ranging and complex; in my opinion copyright as we know it is outdated and supported by record companies too monolithic to change archaic business models.
Revenue generated by music is increasingly going straight to the content creators and the middle men don’t like it. The majority of fans seem to be happy though and I foresee a future where many bands make a decent amount of money as compared to a present where a few bands make an obscene amount.
It is strange that record companies have not seized on this file-sharing market and embraced it more wholeheartedly – the majority of file sharers are music fans who love to buy their favourite bands’ music and tickets to their gigs. What they do not like is to be force-fed over-priced, overly-marketed rubbish.
A study by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) suggests there are certainly filthy amounts of dosh to be made in this alternative market.
"The value added in the United States by industries dependent on Fair Use is $2.2 trillion dollars annually, or one sixth of the US economy," says the study.
(Fair Use is a part of US copyright law that states: “The fair use of a copyrighted work … is not an infringement of copyright”. Unsurprisingly, there is considerable debate as to what “fair use” actually constitutes.)
What’s more interesting about this story though is the confusion surrounding the way the internet should be regulated.
People tend to forget how new the internet is; it is so much part of our lives that we struggle to remember how things worked before its existence. It has only been running in its present guise for around five years – it is very much new frontier stuff with Wild West morals to match.
Governments are naturally weary of the internet because it is by its very nature a provocative beast. It tests the boundaries of free speech on a daily basis.
Freedom of expression is embraced by most until it offends our sensibilities – many support the rights of the oppressed to have their say but what about the rights of a pro-life abortion group to publish pictures of aborted foetuses on its website?
Is there an argument to say that images like these – which are not illegal but offensive to many on grounds of taste and privacy – should be black-listed with images of child pornography?
The Australian government certainly thinks so - a site very similar to the one described above is on a list of sites that will be blocked by a country-wide internet filter if laws are passed this year.
The black-list is supposedly made up mainly of sites that show abhorrent child pornography but does contain other sites deemed offensive.
Those campaigning against the filter are concerned that the list is not available for the public to view – thereby being open to abuse. It is possible that the criteria for banning websites could become more and more loose until censorship of the internet is widespread and its power as a tool of communication is forever diminished.
The internet should not face any greater regulation than that faced by traditional forms of media. The usual laws of defamation, obscenity and so on should apply but it is essential that the net community develops its own sense of ethics and learns to self-regulate.
If we treat the internet like a prisoner it will certainly reoffend – if we treat it like our child it will learn and grow into a responsible adult.
3 News