on Jan 21st, 2007Democracy on the web – efforts by web majors
 All web companies have to face the democratic war on the net some time or the other. Free expression and information, the very reason for the creation of the internet, seems to have gotten entangled in country laws and regulations made by people not open to change. There is a enterprise mantra and which till recently, I believed to be false, “Change is not something thats accepted, even if its for the good“.
In light of some of the controversies over websites, companies are spending billions of dollars to defend their own against people accusing them of crimes they didnt commit. Take for example the violation of copyright because of some background music played in a home video on youtube. Or the lawsuit against MySpace for letting predators in( what do you expect them to do, ask on signup, are you a predator ? ) . Such lawsuits are pointless and should be disregarded at the very instant. Unlike before, site creators are not the Information Publishers. If people are offended, they must seek the person who put up that information. YouTube doesnt need to apologise because some person posted defaming videos of the Mahatma. But country laws are tricky cards to play and you can be assured no lawyer will leave a case which promises him a buck or two ( lawyers please dont take offense ) .
To work towards standardising and rewriting governing laws on the web, Biggies like Yahoo , Google , Microsoft and Vodafone are starting a dialogue together to challenge the laws governing businesses running internationally. In association with Business for Social responsibilty and advice from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
quote : The process — which aims to produce a set of principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights — marks a new phase in efforts that these groups began in 2006.
At the same time, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) was also convening technology leaders, investors and human rights advocates to discuss how to advance civil liberties on the Internet in the face of laws that run contrary to international standards for human rights.
I wish them the best of luck and hope to see a unified set of rules for all countries alike.
