***Internet Regulation?
by Malisa L. Burkeen
This past week, The Cato Institute held a conference entitled "Regulation
or Private Ordering? The Future of the Internet." WAVE was on hand to
assess the thoughts of this group of (primarily) law school professors.
The consensus: (1) the Internet should not be regulated because users do
have a choice about what they will receive or choose to view and thus can
avoid items or topics they consider offensive; (2) the Internet is
ungovernable because it lacks physical boundaries and thus negates the
legal principles of "law of place" and "law of jurisdiction."
Even with this general agreement and tone throughout the conference, none
of the speakers offered to provide an insight into what action the courts
would take regarding the Communications Decency Act. In fact, one
admitted he really had no idea what the ruling would be. Several speakers
suggested that the whole act could be avoided by simply instituting a
labeling system. This solution would have different organizations, the
Christian Coalition was given as an example, label sites on the Net and
users can access those labels to set up their browser to block access to
certain types of online material, making users "self-governed" so to
speak.
Danny Weitzner of the Center for Democracy and Technology predicted that
issues regarding Internet regulation will continue to grow between the
states and also in the international arena. The outcome is uncertain, but
all agree any action will be far reaching and will require a radical
rethinking of government and laws.
Wave Issue 9609 9/27/96 Article 6-01