Written on December 10th, December 14th, and December 20th, 1995.
More than a few people have predicted "The Death Of The Internet"
in one form or another. I've seen such claims made many years ago, when
the mass media was still struggling with the concept of word processing
and desktop publishing, and Al Gore was monkeying around in Congress. And
predictions continue to pop up reguarly.
The reasons have ranged from the discovery of pornography and/or
erotic material on the 'net to conspiracy theories about the goverment to
total mis-comprehension on the nature of the hardware and software. And
of course, all of the predictions have proven completely wrong.
So far.
It really isn't possible for the Internet to die or be shut down
or in some fashion made to not exist. Even if every computer in the USA
simultaneously blew up, every coaxial cable connection turned to molten
slag, the Internet would still exist. No laws or regulations can shut it
down. Because the Internet is nothing more than collection of seperate
entitites, communicating based on a common set of standards and
protocols.
This doesn't mean that bad things can't happen to the Internet,
though. And while the entire Internet can't be shut down, it's not at all
inconceivable that portions could be.
Right now, legislation is being enacted in the US that will
severely restrict the ability for US-based sites to carry a diverse range
of information. This legislation, in its varying forms, basically boils
down to the idea that because there is naughty material on the 'net,
children might access this material. Because this can happen,
the goverment apparently feels it necessary to prevent it from being a
possibility.
The US goverment will fail, of course. There are too many different
sites on the net, and it is now very easy for any individual person to set-up
their own node. There aren't enough law enforcement resources to nationally
enforce the impending legislation. And the USA goverment only has authority
over US-based sites. It's trivial for somone such as Playboy or Penthouse to
just move their Interner resources onto a provider site outisde of the USA and
continue to make their material available.
But the laws will have extremely negative effects, on multiple
levels. First, of course, is the detriment done to the Constitutional
right to Free Speech. Effectively, the goverment is saying "You can't say
or do anything, or produce anything that in anyway is indecent and could
be accessed by a minor" in regards to the Internet. So while I could
publish a book that's had graphic descriptions of sex and gore and this
book could be put on the shelves of every national bookstore chain in the
US as well as quite a few grocery stores (perhaps penned under the name
Stephen King even), if I posted a message to a Usenet newsgroup carried
only by a small local system where that message contained a single
obscenity, I would have violated Federal law.
And of course, there's the harmful effect on commercial business. The
The Internet Service Provider industry is quite young, and is one of the
fastest growing markets there is, period. But with these new laws, these
ISP's would be forced to start censoring their users, many of which would
lose interest in the 'net and stop using ISP's. A bad blow to a new and
promising business field. And of course, companies specializing in
Internet products (such as Netscape, Lycos, etc.) would be hurt
indirectly, as they depend on the great wealth of the net's information
content to make their products viable. A decrease in profits means, among
other things, a decrease in a taxes for the goverment. But of course, no
one ever said that the US goverment never bites its own hand.
Sadly, the US goverment isn't the only threat to the Internet.
The above-mentioned commercial sector is probably the fastest growing
threat to the future of the Internet. While the Goverment is ignorant and
simple-minded and merely wishes to restrict the contents of the Internet,
the business world is far more interested in exploiting the Internet for
profit. History clearly shows that unlimited exploitation of any resource
eventually either depletes the resource, or so damages the environment
that the resource becomes worthless or unobtainable.
Many businesses use the Internet in their daily work, as a means
to communicate with others, to transfer data, or do research. Such usage
of the Internet's resources is not really a problem. But many business
entities (ranging from big corporations to individual so-called
entreperneurs) are more interested in making money by exploiting the
Internet directly. This includes "selling" Internet access at insanely
inflated prices with severe mis-representation of what the users get,
spamming Usenet newsgroups with advertisements (that may or may not be
legitimate), and the ever-popular Pyramid Scam where one is led to
believe one will become the world's richest man by sending money to other
people.
These practices, along with other less common ones, have been
ballooning ever since public awareness of the Internet increased. And
because there is no specific regulation on Internet commerce, too often
there is not any legal recourse except in civil courts. This generally
amounts to "I don't like what this entity said/did and I want them to
give me money/stop doing it/apologize". In other words, the sort of
squabbling usually engaged in by children.
Not all businesses are irresponsible in their use of the Internet.
Most of the big companies (Apple, IBM, Digital, and even non-computer
companies) know that they can make more by using the Internet as a tool and a
resource than as a gimick. But independants and the smaller, more reckless
businesses are too excited about this WhizzBang New Thing and how to use
it to take the time to learn about proper Usenet etiquitte, how not to abuse
Internet resources, etc.
Sadly, I feel that in the end the only real solution will be
goverment regulation. The US Federal goverment can't do anything about
access outside of US borders, but it certainly can have a major impact
here, and can indirectly influence other nations. Eventually, we will
have legislation regulating commerce on the net, outlawing extremely
abusive behavior, and probably controlling content.
The most unfortunate thing about this eventuallity is that it
would not be necessary if the Internet community could work cohesively to
maintain an Internet Peace. But the very feelings about freedom of
expression and the anarchistic nature of the net seem to prevent this
possibility from ever really happening.
Copyright 1995,1996 by Jeff Carl Mercer. All rights reserved.
This document is "fair-use friendly". Quote at will.
Please contact the author if you wish to reproduce this document in whole.