Internet to ITU: Stay Away from My Network
Ross Wm. Rader,
CircleID,
Dec 27, 2004
These days I wonder whether our open internet is soon to be a thing of the past. There is no real need for open communication on the part of those content, software and telecommunications companies controlling large parts of the net. Indeed, freedom to communicate creates for them a number of problems, everything from viruses and spam to piracy to political activism. In a document released earlier this month, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) proposes the solution: it will run the internet. Ross Radar translates for us: "If you let us fix it, we will create a perfect environment for you in which no one will be able to do wrong." Radar points to the telecoms' inability to achieve such nirvana, which is fair enough. But more deeply, as theologans know, the vision is flawed. Without the capacity for sin, there is no virtue: and worse, without the capacity for sin, we are rendered incapable of recognizing virtue. We have to have a place outside the law from which standpoint we can recognize whether the law is being used for good, or for evil. Because there is a non-zero chance that the ITU - or anyone - who had sole control of the internet, would use it for evil.
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