More Attacks on Internet Feedom

I have had a bit to say about freedom of virtual worlds lately, but today I would like to point out how a couple of governments and corporations are making decisions for us.

On 12 June 2007, the Prime Minster of England Tony Blair gave a speech basically calling for regulation of online journalism. Hinting at new restriction on internet journalism.

It is that the relationship between politics, public life and the media is changing as a result of the changing context of communication in which we all operate; no-one is at fault - it is a fact; but it is my view that the effect of this change is seriously adverse to the way public life is conducted

We (the New Labour Party) paid inordinate attention in the early days of New Labour to courting, assuaging, and persuading the media (putting a spin on a subject)

The media world - like everything else - is becoming more fragmented, more diverse and transformed by technology.

There are roughly 70 million blogs in existence, with around 120,000 being created every day. In particular, younger people will, less and less, get their news from traditional outlets. But, in addition, the forms of communication are merging and interchanging.

With the emergence of internet based news and 24 hour television news channels means their reports are “driven by impact”, and he put forth that the need for distinction between news and comment needs to be reasserted.

“As the technology blurs the distinction between papers and television, it becomes increasingly irrational to have different systems of accountability based on technology that no longer can be differentiated in the old way,” The Prime Minister said.

I can only imagine what directions the reactions to this speech will take, but my fears tend to believe it won’t be good.

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An example of Corporations ability to interfere with internet freedom is AT&T’s intention to target pirated content (registration required) as reported by the LA Times… and brought to my attention by Make you go hmm, Dave Winer, and Doc Serals Weblog.Excerpt:

The San Antonio-based company started working last week with studios and record companies to develop anti-piracy technology that would target the most frequent offenders, said James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president.

The nation’s largest telephone and Internet service provider also operates the biggest cross-country system for handling Internet traffic for its customers and those of other providers.

As AT&T has begun selling pay-television services, the company has realized that its interests are more closely aligned with Hollywood, Cicconi said in an interview Tuesday. The company’s top leaders recently decided to help Hollywood protect the digital copyrights to that content.

“We do recognize that a lot of our future business depends on exciting and interesting content,” he said.

Cicconi said that once a technology was chosen, the company would look at privacy and other legal issues.

I love Doc Searls comment: “Kinda gives ya the warm scuzzies, huh?”

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has already sued AT&T for alleged illegal release of customer’s phone data to the federal government, so it should be interesting to see their reaction to this.

Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge stated: “AT&T is going to act like the copyright police, and that is going to make customers angry,” she said. “The good news for AT&T is that there’s so little competition that where else are the customers going to go?”

I suggest that while activism is getting started in Second Life, we must remember to speak out against all assaults on our freedoms.