And the Ghettoization of the Internet has started

I see the hysteria over the well-being of "the children" no different than the
hysteria over the well-being of Internet artists. Digital sanctuaries and
kid-friendly Internet domains are just another way of falling to the
regulatory shenanigans of the Rollings Bill. Those smart chips are
going to be used for more than reading DVD-specific code. They
will be used to segregate and track people all over the Internet.

Instead of talking about a digital sanctuary, whether for kids or artists,
we should be talking about digital ghettos, reservations and encampments.
They will not be there to protect our freedoms. They will be there to delimit
the fiefdoms of the corporate lords of the Internet.

If there was ever a doubt that the Internet was a territory that could be
conquered and divvied up, well, I think this proves all the doubters wrong.


=====================================================



House Passes Kid-Friendly Internet Bill
Tue May 21, 2:41 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday
approved a proposal to create a kid-friendly Internet zone free of
violence, pornography and other adult material.

By a vote of 406 to 2, the House approved a bill that would set up an
area within the United States' ".us" Internet domain allowing only
Web sites deemed appropriate for children 12 years old and younger.

Web sites bearing a ".kids.us" address would have to certify that
they do not contain sexually explicit material, hate speech, violence
or other material not suitable for minors.

"The wild West of the World Wide Web will get tamed somewhat," said
bill sponsor Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, at a press
conference.

In the Senate, North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan said he will
introduce similar legislation later in the day with Nevada Republican
John Ensign.

Unlike previous attempts to screen out online smut, the bill would
regulate content only on a corner of the Internet that falls directly
under U.S. government control. Better known domains such as ".com"
and ".net," as well as the rest of the ".us" domain, would not be
subject to restrictions.

"If you're in Tennessee, Taiwan or Timbuktu, you can publish or speak
any content you want on the Internet," said co-sponsor Rep. Ed
Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, in remarks on the House floor.

The bill represents the latest attempt to keep children away from the
sexually explicit material easily available to anyone with a computer
and an Internet connection.

The Supreme Court had thrown out an early attempt, the 1996
Communications Decency Act, as an infringement on free speech. A
second, the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, remains sidelined by a
court injunction.

More recently, lawmakers had hoped the international body that
controls domain-name policy would set up a ".kids" domain.

After the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers passed
on the idea in November 2000, Markey and Shimkus introduced a bill
that would force it to set up a ".kids" domain.

But they backed off from that plan last fall after witnesses told
them it would be difficult to dictate policy to ICANN (news - web
sites), which is not under direct U.S. government control.

The revised bill would place a ".kids" subdomain under the control of
NeuStar Inc., the Washington-based telecommunications company that
won the contract to manage the ".us" country-code domain last fall.

NeuStar would be expected to police the subdomain to ensure it
remains free of inappropriate content, and it would answer to the
Commerce Department (news - web sites)'s National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (news - web sites).

Web sites in the domain would be prohibited from linking to sites
outside it, and they could not set up chat rooms, instant messaging
(news - web sites) or other interactive services unless they could
certify that they did not expose children to pedophiles or pose other
risks.

If privately held NeuStar were to lose money on the venture, it could
give control back to the Commerce Department, which would seek
another operator.

Max Herman May 22 2002 01:00Reply

In a message dated 5/22/2002 10:33:18 AM Central Daylight Time,
liza@potatoland.org writes:


> If there was ever a doubt that the Internet was a territory that could be
> conquered and divvied up, well, I think this proves all the doubters wrong.
>

Way I see it, artists should do good art that's legal, until it becomes
illegal, then quit. But there's this site–http://www.jsgboggs.com/--he's a
well-known artist, right?

I don't think net art is having a very large effect in the more involved
sense. I don't know for sure why this is, I think it has to do with other
taboos besides what's legal and what's not.

Max

patrick lichty May 22 2002 01:00Reply

And the Ghettoization of the Internet has startedWhat is the response, then?
TAZ's, virtual sit-ins, parallel net.universes like hell.com?
—– Original Message —–
From: Liza Sabater-Napier
To: Rhizome_Raw
Cc: Jon Ippolito
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 10:19 AM
Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: And the Ghettoization of the Internet has started


I see the hysteria over the well-being of "the children" no different tha=
n the
hysteria over the well-being of Internet artists. Digital sanctuaries and
kid-friendly Internet domains are just another way of falling to the
regulatory shenanigans of the Rollings Bill. Those smart chips are
going to be used for more than reading DVD-specific code. They
will be used to segregate and track people all over the Internet.


Instead of talking about a digital sanctuary, whether for kids or artists,
we should be talking about digital ghettos, reservations and encampments.
They will not be there to protect our freedoms. They will be there to del=
imit
the fiefdoms of the corporate lords of the Internet.


If there was ever a doubt that the Internet was a territory that could be
conquered and divvied up, well, I think this proves all the doubters wron=
g.




=========================
==========================
====






House Passes Kid-Friendly Internet Bill
Tue May 21, 2:41 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday appro=
ved a proposal to create a kid-friendly Internet zone free of violence, por=
nography and other adult material.

By a vote of 406 to 2, the House approved a bill that would set up an are=
a within the United States' ".us" Internet domain allowing only Web sites d=
eemed appropriate for children 12 years old and younger.

Web sites bearing a ".kids.us" address would have to certify that they do=
not contain sexually explicit material, hate speech, violence or other mat=
erial not suitable for minors.

"The wild West of the World Wide Web will get tamed somewhat," said bill =
sponsor Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican, at a press conference.

In the Senate, North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan said he will introduce =
similar legislation later in the day with Nevada Republican John Ensign.

Unlike previous attempts to screen out online smut, the bill would regula=
te content only on a corner of the Internet that falls directly under U.S. =
government control. Better known domains such as ".com" and ".net," as well=
as the rest of the ".us" domain, would not be subject to restrictions.

"If you're in Tennessee, Taiwan or Timbuktu, you can publish or speak any=
content you want on the Internet," said co-sponsor Rep. Ed Markey, a Massa=
chusetts Democrat, in remarks on the House floor.

The bill represents the latest attempt to keep children away from the sex=
ually explicit material easily available to anyone with a computer and an I=
nternet connection.

The Supreme Court had thrown out an early attempt, the 1996 Communication=
s Decency Act, as an infringement on free speech. A second, the 1998 Child =
Online Protection Act, remains sidelined by a court injunction.

More recently, lawmakers had hoped the international body that controls d=
omain-name policy would set up a ".kids" domain.

After the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers passed on t=
he idea in November 2000, Markey and Shimkus introduced a bill that would f=
orce it to set up a ".kids" domain.

But they backed off from that plan last fall after witnesses told them it=
would be difficult to dictate policy to ICANN (news - web sites), which is=
not under direct U.S. government control.

The revised bill would place a ".kids" subdomain under the control of Neu=
Star Inc., the Washington-based telecommunications company that won the con=
tract to manage the ".us" country-code domain last fall.

NeuStar would be expected to police the subdomain to ensure it remains fr=
ee of inappropriate content, and it would answer to the Commerce Department=
(news - web sites)'s National Telecommunications and Information Administr=
ation (news - web sites).

Web sites in the domain would be prohibited from linking to sites outside=
it, and they could not set up chat rooms, instant messaging (news - web si=
tes) or other interactive services unless they could certify that they did =
not expose children to pedophiles or pose other risks.

If privately held NeuStar were to lose money on the venture, it could giv=
e control back to the Commerce Department, which would seek another operato=
r.

Nikola Tosic May 22 2002 01:00Reply

re = If there was ever a doubt that the Internet was a territory that could be conquered and divvied up, well, I think this proves all the doubters wrong.

control over the internet should be immediatelly taken from USA and given to ROMA people!

http://www.outtasiteweb.com/letter.html vs http://www.romani.org

everything would go to hell but, hey! at least none of kids.us business











;

mailto:nikola@tosic.com

http://www.tosic.com
http://www.nekada.com
http://www.njumedija.org

joseph mcelroy May 22 2002 01:00Reply

Another company has staked out the .pro domain and will only give these
addresses to professionals who are certified accountants, lawyers, and
doctors. The large certification organizations are part of the ruling class.
Watch legislation to see if laws are passed to allow only certain protocals to
be used for accounting data - the protocals conveniently used by Microsoft
programs (Microsoft and JD Edwards gave $50 million to accounting certification
org to develop them). They already did for patient data in the medical
industry (HIPPA).



Joseph Franklyn McElroy
Cor[porat]e [Per]form[ance] Art[ist]

Max Herman May 22 2002 01:00Reply

In a message dated 5/22/2002 5:40:34 PM Central Daylight Time, voyd@voyd.com
writes:


> TAZ's, virtual sit-ins, parallel net.universes like hell.com?

Man good question.

Max Herman May 23 2002 01:00Reply

In a message dated 5/23/2002 4:12:27 AM Central Daylight Time,
britney@rhizome.org writes:


> amerika.kids.us

What we need are recombinant popstars to latently carry civic best practice
even to the overprotected youth, like Eminem does. He has a new song about
self-assertion.

But a high-quality public schools based internet for learning with no porno?
I don't know.

One note on the internet, I think we often confuse the fact that on the one
hand, everybody gets internet service. On the other hand, you have artistic
differences. Where does this amerika.kids attitude come from? Part of
rippin' it up in the new millennium means having a good portion of market
optimism.

On a more humble topic, I recently played a tape of my band Shlagel for a
local rock veteran, plays out and so forth. He said the tape and the music
on it sucked; that I was too smart not to know that. He's from England.

But I don't mind anymore, 'cause now my mind is wasted on a dream. Take a
walk upside yourself. Get to know the person behind the face. Is it someone
you can really love? Is it somebody who looks down from above?

They say terrorism is a cancer. I agree that it is; our global species has
many cancers, terrorism being one of the worst. In practical global
geopolitics, I'm most worried about a large war in India and Pakistan. I
worry about the current US administration, most people do I think, but for
the first time I also take a large majority of dystopian scenarios to heart
that go beyond US politics–not just war in other states or terrorism in the
US, but water shortages, rapid climate change, biopollution, what the world
will be like after ordinary dipshits get nanotech, the total surveillance
state, and its accompanying power relations set.

You can take the kid out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of
the kid!

Seriously, I thought we all knew that democracy was always a weakness for
states, one that we used to claim was so desirable that other states would
providentially seek it if allowed a choice. Ideally, the newly democratic
states would no longer have an interest in harming each other, went the
logic.

Also news to Rhizome, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from
nettime-subscribers offlist, and a couple of my own posts have even gotten
through. I think it would be great if Thomas Frank and Geert Lovink talked
about the political aesthetic of G2K.

Max Herman

www.genius2000.net


++

Tim B May 24 2002 01:00Reply

On Thursday 23 May 2002 12:53 pm, Nmherman@aol.com wrote:

> But a high-quality public schools based internet for learning with no
> porno? I don't know.

http://www.silicon.com/a53485

don't fear. as long as adults crave for porn and the younger ones know how to
hack and handle computers and networks better than the older ones it will be
accessible.
s'ppose if you'd let it come down to some sort of "censorship" debate as the
previous one videogames. age restrictions are only ever as effective as
parental control of their enforcement and parent's ability to hide their own
"not to be seen". in other words, down to almost none. so let`s go rummage
through our parent`s bedrooms.

tim