9.6 Concerns and Related Issues
There are many concerns to be expressed about how the Web might change as a result of new copyright laws. Certainly the Web is destined to change. It has been changing ever since it's birth; mainly growing in size. With the expansion of the Web from research to education, commercial arenas and the government, more issues, questions and concerns arise to create a larger, better and safer place for information and exploration. Ironically enough, the efforts to make the web a bigger and better place creates bigger and worse problems for users, Web publishers and others.
Users become concerned with keeping the Web a free world to do with and where and what they please. Stricter laws pose a threat to a user's freedom to put on and take from the Web as they please. New laws mean new methods of enforcement that could jeporadize the aspects of the Web today. This ties in with freedom of speech and the Telecommunications Bill which was strongly opposed with the Blue Ribbon Campaign that spread across the Web. More information on freedom of speech and how it related to the web can be found in Chapter 5.
It is also important to consider what will happen if new, stricter laws are enacted. How will these laws be enforced? Will our on-line service providers (OSPs) be responsible for our actions? This is a very likely scenario. OSPs have the capabilities to monitor and control what we do with our accounts. It is a possibility that OSPs will become the Internet Police. They will watch our activities and extend the necessary punishment to law breakers. Does this monitoring violate our right to privacy? Will laws be proposed to protect the user also?
If copyright laws become stricter and authors and web publishers become more protective of their works, the availability of free information may diminish. Commerce on the Web may not be limited to catalog shopping in the future. It may become the situation where articles will cost you a penny a page or one dollar per article. Or perhaps a user will have to pay for subscriptions to specific sites and without an ID and password cannot access the useful information that lies within. This scenario would be detrimental to educators that want their students to use this free domain for quick and easy research.
There are many possible results that can occur from strict copyright laws. For now, users probably will not see any affects from the recent copyright act. However, this may not be the case in the future. Just as there are users who would like the Web to be virtually lawless and free from the intrusion of police, there are also authors, publishers and commercial businesses who would like compensation for providing their information on the Web. Who the law will answer to can only be guessed. It is in this authors opinion that we will see some changes, possible drastic, in the future. It is inevitable that more laws will be proposed and accepted.
Copyright © 1996 Kelly R. Hanood
Kelly Hanood <hanood@simon.cs.vt.edu>