BigPond GMD Justin Milne has likened the world wide web to the wild wild west. When the excitement and opportunity of the gold rush days attracted entrepreneurs, adventurers and miners and the lack of law and order attracted bushrangers and cowboys. Before the west was won vigilantism and tarring and feathering were common. One hundred and fifty years later, should online law and order be based on the same principles used to protect settlers from gun-toting cowboys?
“Today we live and work among adventurers who constantly push the frontier for our collective benefit (and the odd entrepreneur who gets rich quick). But your family and mine also share the internet with "bad guys". Our laptops, PCs and smartphones can be havens for spainmers and scammers, phishers, hackers and hijackers, who take advantage of online lawlessness and make the lives of some citizens - especially the most vulnerable of us – positively dangerous.”
Early citizens of pioneering towns recognised law and order was a necessity if their communities were to flourish. Early attempts relied on an informal and unpaid network often themselves operating on the edge of the law. This style of law enforcement was prone to subjectivity and in extreme cases vigilantism.
Order came to the wild west only when independent law enforcement was established backed by an elected and accountable parliament and the consequences of uncivilised behaviour were understood by offenders.
“One hundred and fifty years later, online law and order is best guaranteed in the same way. Online security can be assured when ISPs objectively apply the legislation of an elected and accountable parliament, when offenders are judged and punished by an impartial justice system, and when the system is policed by appropriately resourced and equipped law enforcement agencies. Calls for ISPs to define "sin", fund mercenaries to police online behaviour and to unilaterally punish offenders ignore the lessons of history. Internet service providers should not serve as de facto sheriff, judge and hangman; they should instead implement policies agreed by elected governments to be in the public interest.”
Read the full article:
• Internet not ISPs' town to rule (business.theage.com.au)