[governance] regulating the digital space - whose laws apply, and whose do not

[Daniel Kalchev]

On 26.08.11 14:35, McTim wrote:
> On 8/26/11, Paul Lehto<lehto.paul at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>
>> The fundamental question, thus, is:  Who's in Charge?
> The fundamental answer (at least for the last 4 decades is "no one,
> and everyone").
>
> I'm happy for that to continue.  Do we as a Caucus really want to
> advocate that every state, every municipality can regulate the
> Internet globally?
>

Imagine say, another country, where Google is not incorporated.

Google ads aid in selling illegal "Canadian" drugs.

According to the 'government rule' opinion, that country's government 
should be able to sue Google and/or the "Canadian" drug sellers for 
breaching their national laws. Has this ever happened? There are lots of 
things, that Internet makes accessible to anyone, including people whose 
local government has decided they are not entitled to it.
What typically happens is it is the consumer that gets beaten for not 
assisting the law.

If a large company like Google is asked to comply, this of course 
happens at the cost of appropriate bribe for the appropriate government 
level. Bribe is not always in money, let's not forget.

Another example. Consider the recent events in Africa. What would you 
prefer, to support the local governments in their applying the LAW in 
that country. (I will not argue if these are democratic or not, 
everything is relative in this world)
Or do we fight for the freedom of the people and assist them in breaking 
the LAW in their own countries?

Just asking... ;)

Daniel

PS: By the way, there was a reason why AT&T was split into pieces 
decades ago.
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