Essay About Global Network And World-Wide Success Of The Internet

Computers
Computers
During the past decade, our society has become based solely on the ability to move
large amounts of information across large distances quickly. Computerization has
influenced everyones life. The natural evolution of computers and this need for
ultra-fast communications has caused a global network of interconnected computers
to develop. This global net allows a person to send E-mail across the world in mere
fractions of a second, and enables even the common person to access information
world-wide. With advances such as software that allows users with a sound card to
use the Internet as a carrier for long distance voice calls and video conferencing, this
network is key to the future of the knowledge society. At present, this net is the
epitome of the first amendment: free speech. It is a place where people can speak
their mind without being reprimanded for what they say, or how they choose to say it.
The key to the world-wide success of the Internet is its protection of free speech, not
only in America, but in other countries where free speech is not protected by a
constitution. To be found on the Internet is a huge collection of obscene graphics,
Anarchists cookbooks and countless other things that offend some people. With over
30 million Internet users in the U.S. alone (only 3 million of which surf the net from
home), everything is bound to offend someone. The newest wave of laws floating
through law making bodies around the world threatens to stifle this area of
spontaneity. Recently, Congress has been considering passing laws that will make it
a crime punishable by jail to send “vulgar” language over the net, and to export
encryption software. No matter how small, any attempt at government intervention
in the Internet will stifle the greatest communication innovation of this century. The
government wants to maintain control over this new form of communication, and
they are trying to use the protection of children as a smoke screen to pass laws that
will allow them to regulate and censor the Internet, while banning techniques that
could eliminate the need for regulation. Censorship of the Internet threatens to
destroy its freelance atmosphere, while wide spread encryption could help prevent
the need for government intervention.
The current body of laws existing today in America does not apply well to the
Internet. Is the Internet like a bookstore, where servers cannot be expected to
review every title? Is it like a phone company who must ignore what it carries
because of privacy? Is it like a broadcasting medium, where the government
monitors what is broadcast? The trouble is that the Internet can be all or none of
these things depending on how its used. The Internet cannot be viewed as one
type of transfer medium under current broadcast definitions.
The Internet differs from broadcasting media in that one cannot just happen upon a
vulgar site without first entering a complicated address, or following a link from
another source. “The Internet is much more like going into a book store and
choosing to look at adult magazines.” (Miller 75).
Jim Exon, a democratic senator from Nebraska, wants to pass a decency bill
regulating the Internet. If the bill passes, certain commercial servers that post
pictures of unclad beings, like those run by Penthouse or Playboy, would of course