[governance] THEME PROPOSAL: internet content filtering and freeexpression

[Milton Mueller]

>>> "Parminder" <parminder at itforchange.net> 3/22/2006 1:25 AM >>>
>Good to hear you use the 'rights' terminology in a 
>forward-looking way. 

Do you mean, whenever I agree with you I am looking forward, and when not, I am looking "backward?" You might do well to read Karl Popper's critique of historicism. (The Poverty of Historicism)  I'd suggest basing arguments on the merits and not on who is riding some alleged "tide of history."

>I had concluded that you are rather conservative on expansion 
>of the 'rights' terminology

I am. I think it is a big mistake to abuse concepts of human rights by reflexively attaching them to any and every political claim. The problem with doing that, is that when far more fundamental individual rights are at stake, public discourse is confused and the strength of the rights claim is diluted and cheapened by the association of rights claims with hundreds of other, less important things. I think I am looking forward, in this case. 

>Also more surprising, since digital rights is a term much less 
>unclear and specific - for ex, see its meaning in the expression 
>'digital rights management', vis-à-vis as the term is used by CS 
>groups. 

I am happy to clarify my use of words when it is not clear. In this case, "digital rights groups" or "cyber rights groups" is often used in the U.S. to refer to advocacy groups that seek to protect traditional individual rights in the new context of the Internet. The term may not be used that way elsewhere. DRM refers to the use of technological fences to monitor and enforce property rights over information content. 


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