[governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR

[Riaz K Tayob]

On 2012/01/05 04:51 PM, Roland Perry wrote:
> I think you also need something about "unless prohibited by law" 
> (which can also be a proxy of 'anti-social and illegal behaviour"). 

There are typically exceptions to rights, civil or human - no right is 
absolute. And then these would turn on what is illegal, unreasonable etc...

> that's why it needs to be a "Civil right" not a "Human right". 

what is the difference you are pushing for here? And what are its 
implications... perhaps I am missing something here...

> After all, even this very open-minded mailing list has thrown people 
> off in the past for spamming or trolling. And does the right extend to 
> convicts in jail (who will undoubtedly use it to organise further 
> crime and jailbreaks?) 

Pending your response above, the point is what is the nature of the 
"right" and its qualitative relationship to access. Even people who 
misbehave have a right to access to medicines, which is deemed as 
fundamental. In fact, if access to communication/info (as Norbert puts 
it) is regarded as so fundamental, then there would be a positive duty 
on the state to ensure that there is access even for the misbehaving.

But this is theory. Perhaps the analogy is not appropriate, it does give 
indications: We live in a world where the rentier class is mighty and 
pushes so that even fundamental rights like health are held hostage so 
that poor people with treatable/preventable conditions cannot get access 
to cheap medicines (the same bunch that arranges the US 301 lobbied for 
no public health option in the US - so it is not just North South). What 
chance the right Norbert puts forward in this political economy?
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