Find better ways to regulate the internet

I'm worried that a hundred years from now, the world will look back at the internet as a great but failed experiment in free and open information.

If that does happen, there will be plenty of blame to go around. The reasons are simple. The net is as destructive as it is informative and useful, and despite having 20 years to try and work out the kinks, it's still a zoo out there. Companies are fed up with have their intellectual property being pillaged, individuals are tired of having their privacy invaded, law enforcement agencies are tired of fighting, well, more than I can list in a 600-word column, and government agencies are sick of having to deal with it all. Things are now getting ugly.

In the US, the Senate is currently considering a bill backed by Hollywood that would require changes in the Domain Name Registration (DNS) system to blacklist and then black out any domain that engages in piracy or copyright infringement. Despite the number of laws already on the books to prevent this type of thing, what the entertainment industry really wants is carte blanch to shut down any website they deem questionable. Some of the early inventers of the internet, not including Al Gore, have already said that such a bill, if enacted, could seriously damage the internet's infrastructure.

Here in the UAE, it isn't just the web that is being targeted. The BlackBerry ban is still scheduled to go off on October 11, just one week before Gitex starts, ensuring that the annual tech show will be filled with snarling execs from around the world angry about not being able to get their e-mails. The BlackBerry ban may also have had an effect on Apple's decision to not include FaceTime on the new iPhone G4.

And don't think that just because you can now access Flickr that the TRA is suddenly becoming rational in what it bans access to on the web. The same day Flickr was unblocked, access to Ventrillo, an online voice service used by gamers, was blocked, apparently because it ran afoul of the anti-VoiP rules. It used to be only services that could connect you to landline or mobile phone that were blocked, but it looks like anything you can plug a mic into is on the chopping block these days.

That same weekend, I also noticed that Google's Image search had also been tinkered with. Google offers three levels of filters for viewing images on the Web (no filter, moderate and strict). For two days, I could only view strictly filtered images on du's network. When I asked Google about this, they said it wasn't anything they did.

The end result of all this is that the internet will be forced into a shiny, branded box, controlled by corporations and regulated by governments. Some think that is just fine; it makes it just like TV. It's easier to use, protect and easier monetise.

But that's just a step backwards. The internet was never designed to be simple, and putting the net into a branded box is the kind of thing that results when people who don't like change have their way. The web has connected the world, opened markets and entertained us like nothing before. It would be silly if corporations and governments reduced it to a silly, if still complex, television network, but unless something changes, that's the way it going.