[governance] Access to the Internet and Human Rights

[Daniel Kalchev]

On Jan 16, 2012, at 10:33 PM, Paul Lehto wrote:

> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Daniel Kalchev <daniel at digsys.bg> wrote:
> Who is the "government" in your scenario, and "whose" money does it spend?
> 
> If it is legitimate government, then it is "our" government, spending "our" money.  ("Our" is the grammatically parallel term for "We" as in "We the People") 

If it is "our" money, then "we" get to say how those money are spent.

It is quite obvious, that although "Internet access" is sort of universal service and that it is quite popular, it is far from everyone, who wants to have Internet access. Internet access has already became huge industry and "nationalizing" it is at least not practical -- however many Governments dream of.

Your explanations strike an similarity between right to "internet access" and "right to food". Now imagine, that we talk about food. Food, has always been precious resource for humanity. Whoever has access to more food is richer, can afford more etc. This is so, because everyone needs to feed and do it regularly. 

Few thoughts about "food":

- fact is, every Government claims to provide "free food" for those in need.
- fact is, in every country, there are people starving. In few countries those people are less, but they do exist.
- in all cases where there is "free food" provided it is of relatively limited nature. If you are producer of food, you will not agree "government money" (that is, your money) to be spent driving you out of business.
- whatever a Government provides, it has extremely high bureaucracy costs associated.
- in most cases, it is not the government that provides free food, but various groups of people (often called charitable societies). Those groups buy or produce food with their own efforts, eventually convincing others to donate.

Therefore, "free, Government provided access to <whatever>" is a myth.

There is of course, a "right" of everyone to access Internet and all the good (and bad) things it can bring to their lives. This is the sole reason we do build the Internet -- so that everyone can use it.

But I fail to see how Governments can help. For the known Internet history, they have been more on the disruptive side of the equation.

Internet, by it's nature is not a monopoly. If your ISP does not like you, it is your choice to select someone else. There is great competition to provide Internet services and this is good for both you and for the ISP.

It is ironic, that you say "legitimate Government" is ok. It turns out, that about the only parties identified so far to consider restrictions of Internet access are Governments. All of them. For the sole purpose to "defend" themselves from this phenomena they don't quite understand - the Internet.

Is the US Government legitimate? Then why does it want SOPA?

Daniel

PS: Internet's "virality" has it's roots in the humans and the specific property of Internet that allows everyone to participate. Governments got the "participate" part and tried to restrict who builds Internet by introducing all sorts of licensing schemes. Some declared victory at the time, but now realize that this thing is not possible to control -- humans will willingly participate in "illegal" (that is, not accepting to be restricted by Government imposed licenses) activities -- for they want access to Internet. If this is human rights, how come Governments do everything possible to deny it?
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