Internet: The Final Frontier

What does the World ask Google to censor? infographic by ahoiin.

This guy made an amazing chart that shows you exactly what Google is asked to censor.

For the United States, by far the largest percentage of requests were due to "defamation" - which, really, is such a broad term that it could mean pretty much anything. Apparently only 1% of the requests were for government criticism, but you have to wonder if individual government officials would fit under the "defamation" category. Or perhaps I'm too suspicious?

Interestingly, there is no record of the compliance rate as measured by reason for request.

As more and more hours of more and more people's lives move online, we've begun to shape the online space in fascinating ways. A large number of people with the time and inclination to be online are middle-to-upper-class people in the 15-55 age bracket. We've moved from a relatively anonymous, sparse landscape to a place where we all post pictures and invite other people into our lives with blogs and Twitter and Facebook. There's internet memes and internetspeak that only the initiated are privy to (ALL THE THINGS!).

The internet was created to spread information, and you'll notice that people on the internet are incredibly willing to help one another - whether it's digging up relevant medieval sources, or patiently explaining to some knucklehead on Yahoo!Questions that no, Russia is not invading the state of Georgia. But on the other hand, we've brought our prejudices with us to some extent as well - girl gamers are very aware of the welcome they'll receive from their male compatriots online.

Up until very recent times, the internet has been largely unregulated in many places. It's very hard to enforce laws about, for instance, online harassment or threats, or the involuntary spread of personal information. That can be harmful, but on the other hand, it's also difficult to enforce sometimes arbitrary rules about age or background or what have you. For better or worse, the internet is our sandbox, to remake in our image like the egomaniacal little gods we all are.

But now things are changing. Monopolies have been built - the best known, of course, is Google. They don't want to be evil, but it's pretty hard to say no to your overlords when you're making so darn much money. We can see The Powers That Be moving in and attempting to shape the way the online world looks.

We'll see how things look ten years from now.

I got her a chart. Ladies love charts.

Don't let someone rob you, mmkay?

Well, clearly there's no possible way this can go wrong.

CAS (Copyright Alert System) is a [text="sarcasm font"]brilliant[/text] new system designed to cut down on illegal downloading and sharing. It operates on a six strikes you're out rule. If the system sees your IP downloading something popular using filesharing software, it will send you several warnings and then make you click "Agree" after quick-scrolling through several pages of educational material. Once it's warned you six times the warnings will stop, but you're liable to get sued on your next transgression.

Here's the thing. CAS isn't a law (though lord knows those aren't perfect either), it's a private agreement between five major Internet companies. They're establishing relatively arbitrary rules (six strikes? No less than five and no more than seven...) and enforcing them using their own dubious means. Even in its testing there have been such gems as the warning sent to Google for allowing HBO to stream on... HBO.com. Clearly this is an entirely foolproof system!

Remember how I said that CAS isn't a law? Like I mentioned, this means they can make whatever rules they want and enforce them however they want. One of the ways they enforce CAS is by slowing your internet to a crawl... Which they do without any trial or proof necessary. And CAS operates on a "don't let someone rob you mmkay" principle - if someone else uses your internet to download things illegally, guess what? You're the one who gets to deal with the sternly worded emails.

Although businesses are supposed to have different guidelines to operate under, it worries me for the future of public wi-fi. If businesses get spooked about the fact that they might wind up in court because hordes of people mysteriously show up to their internet cafes six days after CAS goes into effect, there's no good reason for them to keep paying for service.

It could be that this will be another ineffectual and poorly enforced effort. It's certainly easy enough to get around if you care to (I don't download illegally so I'm not going to tell you how; you can go download a guide yourself). But monopolies make me uneasy, and so do arbitrary restrictions like this.

Quiet Moment by Quiet Moment

This weekend I've been on a mini-vacation. Fun location, lots of adrenaline, and the wifi is only available at night. I've even left my phone behind during the day.

I absolutely love the internet. I love that I can talk to my friends all over the world. I love that I can look up information in a matter of seconds. I love that it's literally impossible to get bored.

But I'm not going to lie... Being without it was freeing. I got halfway through a book that I've been meaning to read for a long time, and loved it.

Definitely have to recommend Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.