How would you like to see the Internet regulated?
 

This was on YNOT and I thought it might spark some debate. How would you like to see the Internet regulated?

Just say no to internet regulation

There is a rough future ahead for the internet. As it stands now it is a powerful tool of freedom. Those in power fear it's power. I know that sounds cryptic and like some cliche prophecy but it is true. The only power in the last 50 years to rival the weapon of mass distraction that is the TV. Scary shit if they "regulate" it. :mad:

The Australian Government is try to bring in a mandatory filter at isp level over here :( I hope it doesn't happen

yeah its disturbing what will it take to move toward freedom of speech again. But it is very vague regulate what?

it could regulate out illegal tube sites and pirate sites.

porn is already regulated via seperate rules for adult processing and hosting.

So you think people stealing content is fine or we should not bother to stop it? </irony>

The Internet is already regulated in some form, it's about how it's regulated in the future that we should consider.

Ouch Paul talk about broad generalization... By "regulate" it can mean anything but in this age of fear and giving up liberty I can safely bet the "regulation" will not be a favorable one, or anything at all helpful to honest people. Like copy protection on games. (Securom)

The problem with the Internet "Freedom" is what it means to many who will take advantage of it.

Spamming to a level that servers are slowing down, people invading others machines to send spam and a lot of the spam being straight fraud. You can regulate how many emails are sent for free and how many are paid for and spamming becomes unprofitable.

Piracy is rife and costing many people their jobs. Not just in this industry, others are effected as well. Is freedom the right for me to take your work and share it with a thousand others? Who might of paid and kept you in a job. Most of the piracy is supported by commerce. Torrent sites are supported by adverts, should Coca Cola be allowed to advertise on a site that promotes piracy? We know about Tubes.

People putting up sites simply to rip off credit cards. A few years ago a big New York publisher was caught charging cards they did not have the right to charge. The freedom to put up a site and bill people is too easy and used by people who will rip others off in as many ways as they can think of.

Illegal pornography, like child porn and the more extreme porn. If it's illegal to publish it in a country because that country has passed laws saying it's illegal why should the Internet be exempt from those laws? You do support democracy or not?

I'm not scared if they clamp down on extreme porn, I can make a living shooting softer content. They will never ban men jerking off. :winkwink:

That's all true and happens a lot. But my argument is the way things are done. Of course when you look at all the things you listed it sounds scary but the fact remains that people "knee jerk" everything they are afraid of. After hearing about it as a person who makes money on the internet I'm sure that your first thought was about protecting your content. But did you think at all about what "regulation" can be capable of?

Yes that could ban all extreme porn, they could ban open leg shots unless the viewer has proved he's over 18, there are ways.

They could just delete the domains of people who break the law time and time again.

They could say that you have to have the 2257 info before you are allowed to upload pornographic content to a server. Or at least make it so that if the content is intended for publication you have the 2257 and can prove it.

You could even make commercial domains far more regulated than they are. Today it's too easy for the scammers.

Policing it is a problem and the scammers will always fight against it. It's the people who take advantage of the laxness of the Internet to run a business that will be the ones who will have to clean up their act.

You can't stop thieves from stealing, what you can do is stop Wal-Mart from selling what they have stolen.

Don't worry the one thing they will not do is stop the money flowing from the Internet, the world can't afford it. They might stop some flowing to Nigeria though. ;)

The government is not our friend. Don't count on government regulators to protect us from internet abuse. Instead, be glad we have the internet to protect us from government abuse.

It's no accident that China, Iran, Cuba and Saudi Arabia were the first countries to regulate the internet.

What is profoundly disturbing is just how many supposedly free and enlightened nations now wish to emulate them :disgust

Well a while back there was talk of media companys wanting to "regulate" charges and how people connect. This sounds like it relates and if it does not then it will eventually. What I want to make clear is that the next few years will be a crucial time for human rights and liberty. So I see any news like this as a threat. I am just a profound enemy of regulations in general. :winkwink:

Weak argument. The Governments are the only ones to to protect us from Internet abuse. Without the laws we have it would be sheer anarchy. Think about it a bit harder.

I'll take complete and total anarchy over censorship any fucking day of the week and twice on Sunday.

The government ain't going to protect you, or anyone else, from anything worth being protected from, such as fraud and piracy.

Instead, given the chance, they'll "protect" you from looking at naughty pictures and such :1orglaugh

Get real.

Get a back bone please.

Why are Americans so scared of so much?

The Governments will never stop you looking at naughty pictures and anyone who thinks they will is on a different planet. They might license and control it but they will not ban it. Did they ban sex shops? Yes some areas say they don't want them in their neighborhood but that's democracy at work.

Anarchy is giving it over to the guys who will turn it into chaos. Try making a living if it's in that state. What's to stop me taking your site and just using the content on my site on on a Tube site unless we have laws?

in every world (real or online) there's always some regulation needed, no matter what.

i agree that regulation has both its pros and cons, but which one outweighs the other? up to you to decide.

they want to regulate it like television is regulated so if that happens, unless you have millions, say bye bye to your job.

Yes the degree of regulation is important. Too little and you have every scammer and his brother taking advantage, too much and you throttle enterprise. I think in todays world no one is looking to throttle enterprise. I could be wrong but do you see them taking porn down and closing off one of the main reasons people got on the Internet, got faster computers, connections and the business we do?

It could work in our favor, the present situation is not.

wouldn't it be good for the adult internet industry if there was some univeral law regarding access to porn? Then people would be forced to pay again.

:2 cents:

more regulation will not solve anything

Europeans Billing Europe!
 

IF THE G-8 MEMBERS UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT MUST FIRST AGREE ON HOW TO REGULATE THE INTERNET NO ONE WILL EVER HAVE ANYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT :winkwink:

ahhh, so it's a-ok if they regulate out content YOU don't agree with....but what if they decide they want to regulate ALL forms of explicit content?

People who are for regulation often want to regulate what they personally don't agree with. Those who oppose it often only oppose it when it encroaches on their jobs or territory. It's all a selfish deal. Hey, I'm no exception. I don't want MY job regulated, but don't mind if they regulate someone else's industry...so I guess you're same way, huh Paul?

Censorship is wrong.

If you work in porn and support censorship you are a fucking retard.

That is all.

I doubt this is an "American" issue, anyone who enjoys freedom takes offense to this. Some prick from "ROME" dictating how the world communicates...hmm sounds familiar. This has nothing to do with looking at porn and other trivial yet standard freedoms, it has to do with "regulation" of something that works perfectly fine free. To those of you who like living in a zoo just to be safe I'm sure you have no problem with giving up more freedom. And why not you have the finest cages money could buy and live apart from the lesser animals. But to people who enjoy true freedom we see it as more of an infringement of it. I did not want to go too deep on this argument but it really lies deeper than just the internet and regulations.

Regulation leads to despotism and people who give up liberty for security deserve neither. Why don't they? Because their attitude towards freedom is a cavalier one and "freedom" is taken for granted. The feeling "oh if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" comes to mind. And to those people I ask... Empty your pocketbook for me to see, let me come in your house and inspect every inch of your property, you have nothing to hide right? Let me examine your bank records and your spending habits, you have nothing to hide right? Bullshit, everyone has something to hide and NOBODY is without sin. The internet and it's people should be "protected" by the design itself and their own brains. Getting scammed and robbed is an obstacle we must all face in life. Do you really want to live in a 100% "regulated" "safe" world?

I won't have my internet freedom trampled on nor my right to bear arms huzzah! :321GFY

:thumbsup

I tend to lean toward this conclusion. Regulation = open to political whims.

Another "What if?" post that denies reality.

They will not ban all erotic or porn content on the Net, for most it will be brought down by countries Constitutions. Freedom of speech covers porn as well.

No I want this industry and the Internet regulated. We already have some and can be thankful we have that. Some seem to be saying we should get rid of the little we have. Are they all in favor of P2P and Tubes stealing content then? Because no regulation means they would be legal. So are you really saying no more regulation or would you like some more that makes piracy tougher?

No Damian you're the retard and you prove it here.

Men will jerk off to images that turn them on. Even if all that is legal are pictures of girls in bikinis men will still jerk off to them. I'm being extreme here and only a retard like you would think it could be censored to that degree.

Do you think I made a living shooting what is acceptable today 30 years ago? No I made money shooting what today is considered as softcore. Stop trying to prove how clueless you are. Stick to card tricks.

Again.

Are you in favor of more, none or the same as we have?

Just reading some threads about companies charging cards for memberships they did not agree to. Are you saying these regulations should be enforced, improved or done away with all together?

The Internet porn industry is in a mess it brought upon itself. It's losing customers because of the way we have operated over the last 8 years. Some of it was shoddy methods, some stretching the truth and some plain deception. Some of it is companies stealing others content using a loop hole in the DMCA. All has led to falling sales.

No regulation means these practices would increase, the same level would mean they continue unchecked, more could mean these people are put out of business. While so many are scared that more regulation would lead to the demise of the business we are watching it slowly kill itself with a lot of regulation that does not go far enough or just not enforced.

No more, just change. And not towards any form of censorship. The fact you find it ok if you have to dum down to "softcore" tells me your stance is the one I noted in an earlier post. As you can see the majority of other people who posted do not feel the same.

Wrong.

I was trying to illustrate a point. That what ever the levels of porn allowed we will have people buying. The majority are wrong in thinking that because they can't see extreme they will stop all together. They will still buy.

Obviously regulation won't mean a ban of pornography. All they have to do is to make it unprofitable enough by taxing the crap out of it. That will kill or criminalize all the small and medium businesses in a couple of years. Regardless, less money to make will mean less porn being made and we will all roll back to the 80's with a handful of bigger companies selling magazines and movies in small well hidden shops.

The G8 can't stop porn, but they can easily make it into a much, much smaller industry than it is today, with some creative regulation, which in turn will make a huge group of "concerned voters" all over the world give thanks to their respective Gods...

c.r.t.c is thinking about it !
FUCKING CANADA !

WE SHOULD DO MASSIVE MANIFESTATIONS ABOUT IT !
Sue the fuckers name IT !

You are talking about .SEX domains :Oh crap
A ghetto, a red light if you prefer

"Regulated", suck my balls... hahahahahah

Internet is the only true democratic scene and should not be regulated in any way at all. Also regulated is orwellian newspeak for censored.

Bite your tongue when you say that, you fucking uncivilized baboon!

Do you scratch your ass at dinner parties as well???

A gentleman knows never to use the words "internet" and "regulate" in the same sentence.


What the hell's wrong with you?

Just say no

There is much more than porn at stake here, you brought the topic up to ask others how they felt, have you thought about exactly what you believe? I haven't seen much of a good argument towards wanting regulation.

The internet is already regulated enough.

China "regulates" the internet and look how much crap SPAM and pirated software and fraud is coming out of China.

The government will always act in its own best interests. The people in power make rules to keep themselves in power. The US government already has a war on porn. Regulation will just make it easier for them.

And regulating the internet doesn't work. The internet doesn't belong to one country. It is global. Who's standards are they going to use? If you ask a middle eastern country, 95% of the internet would be blocked. If you ask the Dutch, they won't care. So the US trying to implement unilateral regulations would be moot, and we can always use a proxy to get to blocked websites.

And this whole idea of taking your domain name away if you do something illegal is stupid. A KY Court already took away some gambling domain names, and since the registrar(GoDaddy) had no backbone, it actually complied.

With your idea of regulations, if I posted a link to a video hosted on a tube site, and you complained (to a regulatory body, not a Court, mind you), they would immediately take the GFY.com domain name away.

Thank you for saying what I have been thinking. It really bothers me when supposedly "smart" or even "intelligent" people can't think like free people. Either they are not smart at all or they are looking out for their own best interests and saying "fuck society as long as I'm happy". Now anyone can see Paul is a smart man so it leaves to think why do such smart capable people find it so hard to understand justice, honor and freedom? I'll tell you.... they don't misunderstand they simply care nothing of the freedom of others. :disgust

Certainly not by this fascist idiot..

I don't know enough to have such a powerful opinion yet. Sparks thought though :upsidedow

Where did you get the information they would tax the crap out of it? I missed that one.

Don't come up with scares unless you can back them up.

Amazed that someone who sells content wants less regulation and shocked they should want none. So it will be fine if I used all your content I took from one of your customers sites to put up a Tube site>

Nothing wrong with me at all, I can see the mess that we are in now with little effective regulation.

I think the word regulation has different meanings in this thread to different people.

Interesting post and some good points. With the amount of fraud, piracy and illegal content being put out this statement is clearly wrong.

As you clearly point out here. If it were properly regulated people would not be able to send out or profit from sending out Spam and pirating.

The Government in the US never closed down porn in the US. They have the biggest porn magazines, DVDs and cable publishers of porn. The US is the biggest porn industry in the world. So why do you think they would ban it from the Internet?

Very good point and an individual countries and standards should always take precedent over any International agreement or rules. Yes it would be hard to do, does that make it something we should not attempt?

Banning and even deleting domains of people who break the rules or laws is an option.

Are you saying you should be allowed to pirate so long as it's on the Internet? I'm confused.

If GFY risked losing it's domain because you posted illegal stolen property they would not allow you to post it. Yes if you pirate content on someone elses site both you and the site should be liable to some penalty. Again are you saying piracy should be allowed?

Exactly. Some people here are arguing we should have none, when clearly what we do have is not good enough to keep out scammers, thieves and scum. None would make it worse. Maybe they are profitting from the lax regulations and want to see them removed all together.

Others for no reason are scared it will be regulated to such a level they would ban porn. Just like that banned porn in the US, UK, EU, AU, Japan, NZ and so many other countries. Maybe they are just scared their company would not survive. Porn on the Internet would though.