On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 8:46 PM, Andrew
A. Adams
<[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
Very similar moves are happening in the UK, with Nominet (UK
non-profit with
the .uk (and .gb) country-code delegation) engaging with the
UK's SOCA
(Serious and Organised Crime Agency *) to remove 1200 "sites
engaged in
selling counterfeit goods" recently and now doing a more
explicit deal with
the police to take down the DNS registration for sites
"alleged to be
involved in criminal activity".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/25/nominet_crime/
(*) The SOCA is a rather dodgy organisation, IMHO. When it was
set up the
then home secrewtary made a big thing of it not being actually
police and
therefore not bound by the requirements that the police have
to respect the
human rights of citizens. THat's a recipe for a secret police
operating
extra-judicially and here we see exactly that kind of
approach.
I am very worried by these kinds of moves. Zittrain's "The
Future of the
Internet" and Mueller's "Networks and States" concerns about
censorship
becoming the norm not the exception online seem to be coming
true. While I'm
not in favour of criminals having free reign, the trouble is
that all the
hard won freedoms such as due process, balance of rights, etc.
seem to be
being thrown out in the digital domain.
--
Professor Andrew A Adams [log in to unmask]
Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,
and
Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information
Ethics
Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan http://www.a-cubed.info/