Hmmm…
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/28/ … index.html
On the one hand it sounds good: it’s scary to think the military and financial networks are under attack from foreign governments.
One the other hand it’s scary as hell: perhaps the foundation for an official Internet police (and I don’t mean that in a nice way).
You’re not going to be very happy when I say this, Narg, but we need internet police. The internet is right now a totally intractible nightmare. How long have people been fighting to get a certain Swedish website shutdown? A few weeks ago, weren’t you complaining about how links to some of the well-known pirate sites were on the first page of the results when you search for Japanese h-games?
Pirates operate essentially with impunity. People operate botnets essentially with impunity. 419 scammers operate essentially with impunity. Stolen identities are so cheap it’s just a couple bucks to get one. Millions of computers are used as zombie drones for dark masters to engage in organized crime.
Sure, it sounds ridiculous when you put it that way. But it’s no less true. We have no effectve way to deal wth this crap yet. We need one. Similar problems have, in times past, only been solved by law enforcement. Hell, in times past, people would come into town, open a storefront as a bank – operate the bank for a few weeks … then disappear in the middle of the night, with all the deposits. Enter more sophisticated banking regulation, which effectively eliminated this kind of scam.
Edit: Of course, the Saotome-anything-goes-school-of-social-order has its corresponding advantages … I’m not denying those. But there are a very powerful set of negatives which we are all intimately familiar with, that right now, are a far worse beast.
I’m not disagreeing with you… but part of the reason why the Internet became what it is today, is because of the anarchy and anonymity. No governing bodies - outside of domain names and whatnot - allowed for unrestricted growth and unprecedented evolution.
The second issue: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Creation of this organization is being herald, but what are the “checks and balances” on it? Look up all those privacy (or rather the lack of it) nightmares when the CIA was first formed. Given what the Internet is today, this rings of Big Brother. We thought the government was being NAZI about lolicon? We ain’t seen nothing yet, if they can track Internet activity like they track foreign satellites and military activity. :shock:
Gotta side with Narg’s unease here. While it’s true the www is anarchy, the government would abuse it the moment it had a solid chance(They’re trying to take away gun rights and putting a grip on free speech after all). I could see the porn industry being the first to take major hits from this abuse.
It’s a double edged sword… and I honestly think the only person that’s gonna feel the cut are the ones who don’t abuse it.(As always.)