Originally Posted by
MK27
This would have happened with or without both commercialization and large scale use -- in fact, it would have happened sooner.
I knew someone in high school (c. 1988) who was arrested, charged, and had a court order issued forbidding him from using a personal computer for any purpose for one year, because he was involved in the (very commonplace at the time, and rather innocent) illegal distribution of software on his BBS.
And BBS was neither commercial nor mass media. If the internet were more intimate and unmass commercialified, it almost certainly would be subject to much more restriction and government control, esp since a smaller scale would make this task easier and no one would care ("oh that's just those geeks, it doesn't matter to me if they all go to jail for life anyway").
I would draw the line at using warrantless surveillance to investigate copyright violations, esp when under the DMCA the punishment does not involve a trial either. So now someone in law enforcement has the power to investigate you without a warrant (using techniques that you would be arrested for using), then have you summarily convicted without giving you any chance to defend yourself in court. So this could take place by mistake, or maybe because you were identified protesting at an anti-war rally? Why not? You will be forbidden from using the internet (and possibly worse), then it will be your problem to prove this is an accident (or unfair) afterward, and there may very well be no means for you to do so. Iran...China...USA...what's the difference?
You can say, well, we trust the police and the FBI to not lie and whimsically wreck havoc however they please, and we trust politicians not to use their law enforcement friends to further a politcal agenda. Okay, but perhaps no one -- much less massive anonymous institutions employing hundreds of thousands of people (and certainly not politicians) -- deserves a priori totally unchecked, unregulated trust like that. They need to held accountable and kept in check, at least by already existing, well tested means such as habeas corpus, warrants, and court trials. Even in a society where the majority are too often cowards and fools.
That is like a totalitarian dream! Orwell, anyone?