[governance] Yes! Hands off the Internet!

[Pranesh Prakash]

michael gurstein [2013-01-01 21:49]:
> Pranesh, I think the (high) relevance of the Nader article is in
> response to the position articulated by (I believe it was) David
> Conrad and Suresh, with respect to (particularly Facebook) that "ya'
> pays yer money and ya' takes yer chances" errr... you sign up to the
> service which includes "assenting" to some indecipherable contract
> waiver and then (according to them) you are subject to whatever whims
> or fancies their over-clever and over-priced lawyers and evil twin
> marketers come up with in their capricious privacy (or whatever)
> statement of the day... forevermore...

Nader's work on standard-form contracts and on unequal bargaining power
is why I said "Nader is quite relevant to the current discussion".

Indeed, I have argued in numerous places (including at the IGF12 in WS
141, the panel on industry self-governance) that increased network
effects and lack of substitutability are grave problems that leave
traditional competition law analysis problematic.  In the transcript
from that, see the bit that starts off with "Very briefly, two kinds of
examples of what I am talking about in terms of restrictions" (warning:
there are a number of errors in the transcription, but you should be
able to get the gist of where I'm going):

http://goo.gl/mttFp

I still do not see the relevance of the article that Riaz forwarded.

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director
Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 261 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130101/c03612ce/attachment.sig>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t