Government records could also be made more accessible [thanks to network technology]. The cumbersome procedures necessary to gain access to information under the federal Freedom of Information Act or the local public records laws could be replaced by instantaneous computerized access. Information that is an expensive nightmare to get from government today would thus become available, inexpensively and conveniently, with a few keystrokes.
With the electronic town meeting via television, computer, or some synthesis of both, citizens are offered direct contact with public officials, unmediated by journalists. The idea is to force politicians and the media to talk to the public about important issues that might otherwise escape the political agenda. Combines with televoting, the electronic town meeting offers a potentially significant improvement on the ballot referendum or traditional telephone poll, both of which are poor at fostering deliberation and thus lead to uninformed voting.
Within four years 40 percent of the country will have 500-channel capability … A micro-computer converter box will allow campaigns to send their messages to the family room and the parent’s bedroom, while avoiding the children’s room. This technology will clearly have a greater impact on voters who receive targeted messages.
The rate of technological change will render privacy obsolete. During the critical period in which we can prevent the destruction of privacy, we cannot proceed on the assumption that those with power share our views and can be counted on to preserve our values. Brandeis saw the pitfall in such hopes as well when he said that “the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” We must understand, and we must act.
Computerized databases, which can be searched by text strings or key words, rarely feature “original” organization. Under [the Supreme Court’s ]Feist [decision], no matter how many resources were invested in creating a complex database, it would not be protected by copyright law. As a result, database creators today protect their investment through contracts and high user fees – disfavored by NII proponents’ emphasis on open access.
The failure to address both intellectual property and free-expression issues not only threatens the success of NII, but also reflects a failure of the policymaking process itself … As more information becomes available in digital format, and technologies for digital copying are increasingly widespread and affordable, U.S. intellectual property law will become more and more outmoded.
The government’s top copyright officer, Marybeth Peters … concedes … “The Internet is the world’s biggest copying machine.” But she says that doesn’t mean that copyright is useless, just that it needs to work differently in a world where “property” is evanescent as dots of light dancing on a computer screen. One way, suggest Peters, will be to provide access to data only to those who pay.
People create their own communities in cyberspace, based on affinity rather than geography … The courts will have to unravel when, where and how potential crimes should be investigated.
What some people call hate crimes are going to increase, and the networks are going to feed them. I believe in the First Amendment. But sometimes it can be a noose society hangs itself with.
“With the advent of fiber-optic [cables], it is conceivable that a single transmission medium could become the conduit for newspapers, electronic mail, local and network broadcasting, video rentals, cable television and a host of other information services,” says Robert Corn-Revere … He argues that the day is passing when government can justify licensing and regulating media.