[thechat] Europe, take back the web...

[Erika Meyer]

>Yet today's United States is a country which respects freedom so
>much that if I, a European citizen, set foot there I can be interned
>without any notice or due process, tried by a military tribunal and
>executed in secret.

executed in secret?  do we execute people in secret?  I mean, within
our own borders?  I haven't heard of it...

and wait... you want everyone on the Internet to be subject to
individual laws in every country?  So, if on my blog, I say "Jiang
Zemin is a big weenie" and if that is illegal in China, what then?

I'm not saying I disagree about the US running all over the 'net.
Yes, it's ridiculous, at least from the legal standpoint. Yes,
something should be done.

But Euro-snobbiness is pretty irritating, too.  This implication of
"we're civilized and cultured and you're imperialist renegades"
doesn't impress.  Honey, we learned from the best.

I think we'd all be better off educating the masses (particularly
Americans) than regulating them.  Empowerment, education, free
speech.  It's a global culture. You want to build fences?  Maybe if
we have net borders, then we can have net wars.  That could be
entertaining. But can't we be more creative than that?

I live in Oregon.  I own no assault weapons.  I'd prefer no one else
did, either.  I'd rather come up with better and more creative
solutions.

I wish we could come up with an international group to deal with
legal issues on the 'net, starting with the principle of free speech.
But maybe that's just me being an American... influenced by the
Iroquois Confederacy...  but really... free speech and international
interaction are tremendously important to me.

We all need contact with international peers.  Person to person.
It's the only hope the world has.  And I don't like stupid American
laws any more than you do.  We should work together on this stuff,
not close ourselves off, build walls, run away and hide.

A free-for-all is not the same as free speech.  Free speech means
making an active effort to allow all to have a voice.  When one group
runs roughshod over another, that is not freedom, it's oppression.
Regardless of class, race, culture, gender, age, or nationality...
everyone deserves a voice.

Build borders online?  give me a break.  Escape from America? you
created America.  The snake's eats its own tail.  And will keep
eating it, too.  You can't build a border that will stop it.

- Erika

>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26612.html
>
>Cheers
>Martin
>(who is on client site this week and may not have access to mail)
>--

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