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

[devonrb at gmail.com]

There are some serious issues coming out here which I will enumerate:
Should the internet be governed? To what extent and how?
How is the internet defined? Is it the combination of infrastructure and system software? Is it the virtual space or is it the people who access it?
Do we need governance structures for the infrastructure and the virtual space? Is there need for a different governance mechanism to regulate the actions of those who access the net and those other actions influenced by each action.
To what extent do present legal frameworks,regulations, international laws and treaties are apllicable to the present and future of the Internet? Do we need to start from scratch or is there a solid foundation to build on? Which would be more effective; applying local laws at the point of incidence or the point of effect or should there be international legal mechanisms for cross border breaches of internet protocol? I guess there are lots more questions.
As a layman I believe the anwers exist but only if we are willing to. Understand that these answers may come from a combination of the components of these and other questions.

Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel

-----Original Message-----
From: Roland Perry <roland at internetpolicyagency.com>
Sender: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:24:06 
To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>
Reply-To: governance at lists.cpsr.org,Roland Perry <roland at internetpolicyagency.com>
Subject: Re: [governance] regulating the digital space - whose laws apply,
 and whose do not

In message <4E5E4663.6080605 at digsys.bg>, at 17:34:11 on Wed, 31 Aug 
2011, Daniel Kalchev <daniel at digsys.bg> writes
>> In the opinion of many Americans "guns don't kill people, people kill 
>>people", but governments (even the USA government) seek to regulate 
>>guns.
>
>You mean, like they are regulating cars? On the principle that "no car 
>should be produced to run faster than the police cars"?

Cars are regulated (for example with regard to the quality of their 
brakes, lighting, air pollution, noise, crash-worthiness...), but I've 
not come across a regulation on top speed. Most police cars where I live 
are quite low-cost family saloons, they are used to transport policemen 
to where they need to be, rather than chasing bank robbers.

>In the end  however, you are prosecuted not because your car ran faster 
>than the Police's, but because you were trying to run away from the 
>Police.

You'd probably be prosecuted for careless driving, or exceeding the 
speed limit, or running a red traffic light.

>This way of thinking explains the attempts to cripple the Internet, in 
>order to gain easier control.

The Internet is crippled more by efforts to combat spammers, than 
anything else. For example by blocking port 25. It all depends what you 
mean by "control". But having switched to port 587 to appease the ISP 
I'm using at the moment, I'm free to send any words I like to this 
mailing list.
-- 
Roland Perry
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