NEGATIVE — CONSUMER/INTERNET — SOLVENCY� 408

THE STRUCTURE OF THE INTERNET PREVENTS PRIVACY PROTECTION

DUE TO THE VERY STRUCTURE OF THE INTERNET, THERE CAN BE NO COMPREHENSIVE PRIVACY SOLUTION

K.K. Campbell, The Toronto Star, April 6, 2000, TITLE: OUT OF CONTROL? // acs-EE2001

''It's not a problem that is going to go away," says engineering professor David Parnas, of McMaster University. Parnas is the institution's Software Engineering Program director, and NSERC/Bell Industrial Research Chair in Software Engineering.

The problems are inherent in the Net's design, Parnas says.

''If we accept the present network structure, this ad hoc design, as something we can only 'patch' when we find a leak, we'll always be patching leaks. The problems will continue until we start over."

THE WEB DEFIES ANY FORM OF CENTRALIZED CONTROL

PAUL STARR, The American Prospect, March 27, 2000 - April 10, 2000; Pg. 30 TITLE: The Electronic Commons; THE PROMISE OF THE NEW PUBLIC DOMAIN // acs-VT2001

Since the Web defies any kind of centralized control, there will necessarily be many independent efforts. Various organizations already rate sites for their quality, and these efforts will undoubtedly increase, but something more formal -- with significant resources behind it -- may be necessary to achieve high standards of reliability. One possibility would be to establish an endowed library of the public domain -- call it the Global Public Library. This would not be a single site, but rather a means of accrediting sites and channeling philanthropic capital for online development of public intellectual property. The glory of the Web is its distributed character; if one library or a group of scholars somewhere in the world invests time and effort in putting the collected works of Milton online, Milton's writings become universally available. An internationally sponsored library could accredit affiliates in different spheres of knowledge that would put public intellectual property online and pledge to observe certain textual and bibliographic standards. For example, affiliates would have to serve an archival function, offering permanent access to sources at stable URLs (online addresses) or reliably forwarding visitors to new locations. In return, the affiliates would have privileged listing in the Global Public Library and access to funds channeled through it.

GOVERNMENTS CANNOT CONTROL THE WORLD OF CYBERSPACE

Aaron Zitner, Globe Staff, The Boston Globe, March 19, 2000, SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. E1 TITLE: MONEY MATTERS; THE NET AT WHAT PRICE? HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR WARNS PRIVACY, FREE SPEECH BEING SACRIFICED FOR PROFIT // acs-VT2001

The notion was famously summed up by Internet theorist John Perry Barlow in a 1996 declaration of Internet freedom: "Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind . . . You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather."

THE INTERNET IS TOO BIG TO BE POLICED BY GOVERNMENT

Tom Regan, Staff writer, The Christian Science Monitor, October 14, 1999, SECTION: FEATURES; IDEAS; Pg. 15 TITLE: Can Anyone Tame the Wild, Wild Web? // acs-EE2001

But there is an even bigger problem that prevents the government from acting decisively online - the actual size of the Internet. As Ron Moritz, the president of Finjan Software points out, 125 years ago it was easy for the Texas Rangers to keep an eye on the Lone-Star State because "the Texas Rangers simply had jurisdiction over a huge chunk of geography. "But the geography had boundaries, and beyond those boundaries were other entities and other patrolling organizations," Mr. Moritz says. "The US marshall would oversee the Rangers when they got out of line. Same thing today - the FBI has jurisdiction on crimes that cross state lines. But the Net has no lines, so where do you patrol?" "The reality of the Web is that it's not policeable," says Jon Katz, columnist for the Web magazine Slashdot and the Freedom Forum Online. "Unfortunately, the rest of society is really struggling with that. You see, the Web is a wall-buster, and we live in a society of walls. It just exploded when no one in the culture was really paying attention to it, and it's so big now that you won't be able to rule it with regulations," Mr. Katz says. "There are just not enough police officers to police the Net."

THE MAJOR FORCES TO CONTROL THE INTERNET LIE OUTSIDE OF GOVERNMENT

PAUL STARR, The American Prospect, March 27, 2000 - April 10, 2000; Pg. 30 TITLE: The Electronic Commons; THE PROMISE OF THE NEW PUBLIC DOMAIN // acs-VT2001

The flourishing of public space on the Internet ought not, however, to lead to complacency about its development. The new public domain faces threats to its integrity and openness, and it is marred by frauds, fakes, and intrusions into personal privacy. Like electronic commerce, the electronic public domain needs law and aggressive advocacy to protect it from lawlessness and monopolistic control, though the greater part of what needs to be done lies outside government. This article is a brief attempt to think through those challenges.