Just the other day the awesome parliament of USA2 the European Union voted on what could be the fate of european internet freedom. The main problem would be that the new agreement allows governments to disconnect users from the internet permanently after three suspected cases of internet piracy. It doesn’t need Demosthenes to see that there’s a whole lot of wrong with that.
I don’t want this to derive into a rant about internet freedom, because quite honestly I don’t really care, as long as I can still happily write my toughts on e-paper. However, there is one thing about the whole ordeal that seriously bugs me. I quote; “suspected cases of internet piracy”. ’suspected’. Naturallly, this is kinda dangerous, especially in the hands of any semi-competent entity like lets say, a government!
Again, I would like to emphasize that I don’t really care about software downloads because I have no intention of getting caught because I don’t do piracy. Alas, a second implication of the diabolic pact hits closer to home. will also allow governments to decide what programs are allowed to be used over the internet. That would not be a typo. This actually means that government officials will have to manually aprove any and every program with web acces you use. If that hasn’t scared you yet, imagine a 58-year old balding guy, close to retirment who thinks he is in touch with modern technology because he has a seven year old cell phone. Now imagine said near-retirement zombie having to approve (and hence first comprehend) a virtual LAN-pogram used by 15-year old gamers. Of course, this would also make one-shot ad hoc programmes utterly useless, as the probability of them being aproved or even noticed aproaches zero.
Naturally, I would not be myself if I did not propose solutions for both scenarios. The first is easy, simply make it like any sane 3-strike law and don’t count strikes where one is ’suspected’ of anything. This is the same reason we don’t lock people up because we *think* they commited a crime.
Second problem isn’t exactly difficult either. If, and only if, there really has to be anything of the nature, simply change the white-list to a black-list. That is to say, instead of having to confirm any and all programs, ban specific ones. Come on people, this isn’t rocket science.
Of course, the chance of such a bill being processed in its current form is rather slim, yet the fact that government opinions is gravitating towards such matters is disturbing indeed.
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