The internet: when the frontier closes

[Swagman]

The internet: when the frontier closes
by Bernard Keane

The Government’s Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill is now headed for the Senate after passing the House of Representatives this week; at that point it will become clear whether the Government is minded to offer amendments to address the tripartisan recommendations of the Cyber Safety Committee on fixing some of the more egregious problems of overreach in the bill, or whether the Opposition, as it did with the recent extension of ASIO’s espionage powers, is happy to wave it through as is.

snip

“You are not a parallel universe, freed from the rule of law,” Sarkozy — who presides over an internet regulatory regime even more draconian that US lawmakers have tried to concoct — railed. In short, the days of the online Wild West are over: time for governments to move in, round up the bandits and rustlers and impose law and order so that families and communities can grow there.

snip

But within hours of the Cameron announcement, the San Francisco rail operator BART showed that it too had learnt the lesson, shutting down access to wireless and mobile services (apparently without bothering to tell service providers) when it feared a demonstration was being planned over the killing of a passenger by its security staff. Internet shutdowns such as these are more easily carried out when responsibility for them is diffused across government agencies and private sector infrastructure providers, allowing governments themselves to reject direct responsibility for them. Expect this tool to be deployed more frequently against protesters.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/08/26/what-will-the-internet-look-like-when-the-frontier-has-been-closed/

[w0nderer]

1. k&r for reading later n/t