Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 08:06:25 -0500 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: The Economist On Stop Signs on the Web To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
Stop Signs on the Web
The Internet was supposed to be all about freedom. That is why governments want to regulate it. It is far from certain whether freedom, or government control, will win the day
IN 1967 Roy Bates, a retired British army major, occupied an island fortress six miles off the English coast and declared it a sover- eign nation. He was never sure what to do with his Principality of Sealand. Now, however, the fortress may have found its calling. For several months, a firm called HavenCo has been operating a data centre there. Anyone who wants to keep a website or other data out of the reach of national governments can rent space on the servers that hum in one of the concrete pillars.
In the mid-1990s, Sealand would have been seen as yet more proof that the Internet cannot be regulated. If a country tried to censor digital content, the data would simply hop to a more liberal jur- isdiction. These days, the data principality symbolises just the opposite: the days of unrestricted freedom on the Internet are numbered, except, perhaps, in odd places like Sealand. [snipped]
http://www.economist.com/printedition/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=471 742&CFID=301055&CFTOKEN=47471685
Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor, 2175 Bayfield Drive, Columbus, OH 43229 (614) 313-5722 Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/