NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: ISPs should own your eyes and ears, say AT&T, Cisco, McCurry
I like to use non-Internet examples to help explain Internet-related issues. So, when we examine the supposed logic of turning ISPs -- the conduits of all our Internet communications -- into copyright cops, it's useful to explore how we handle other forms of communications when it comes to civil or criminal enforcement activities. In particular: Do we currently allow the USPS to routinely open and scan the contents of all physical domestic mail looking for possible contraband or discussion of illegal activities, in the absence of a particular party being suspected of a crime? No, we do not. Stalin isn't in charge here. Do we permit phone companies to similarly routinely monitor all calls listening for discussions of an illicit nature? Again, we do not. And yet, all manner of *serious* crimes could likely be discovered in these manners, crimes *far* more devastating to life and limb than sharing of copyrighted materials. But as a society we have determined that privacy in routine communications trumps pervasive surveillance -- this is embodied in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in terms of search and seizure. This leads us to several more questions: Is it not nonsensical and perverse to suggest that an intellectual property crime such as copyright violation rises to such a level that we should permit the monitoring of private communications in an attempt to control this particular class of solely monetary concerns, when we do not permit such monitoring for far more serious crimes? Is it not likely that the creation of such an Internet monitoring infrastructure would lead to demands for routine monitoring of Net communications for all manner of other materials or communications considered to be illicit or illegal by the powers-that-be of the moment? Will not the imposition of such monitoring regimes further hasten the deployment of strong encryption and steganographic systems to evade such technologies, rendering those monitoring technologies largely impotent in the long run and triggering imposition of even more draconian measures? --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator