2003-08-19»
a story about trolls»A story about trolls, translated by Andrew Brown.
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Archive for August 19th, 2003
bill thompson: info-anarchy as cultural imperialism»
Bikinis in Saudi Arabia: info-anarchy as cultural imperialism. Noted without comment. I do wish Bill would come a bit more out into the fray. He keeps punting out these ideas and then never replies to the criticisms (apart from in this constrained environment of mind-tennis game with Siva Vaidhyanathan). I’m sure he must read his detractors. Who is he talking to?
Siva says that “this issue is not about bikinis in Saudi Arabia”, but of course it is. It is about the ability of a government to assert appropriate authority over online activity, whether it is in breach of copyright law or against public standards of morality. Pushing for information anarchy is just another way of endorsing US cultural imperialism, with its stress on US values and free trade. When cultural floodgates are opened – and abandoning any possibility of regulating the net in favour of p2p-induced anarchy would open them – then US culture comes to dominate. Look at the film industry or the games market.
Alright, noted without much comment.