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There's lots to love about the internet, but then, there's plenty to hate about it as well. Here's a few ideas that might fix the internet:

1. Ban any type of adware that undermines a person's control of their own computer. This includes any type of coding that adds links to someone's favorites list without their consent, or that changes their homepage without their consent, or that downloads programs without consent.

2. Put more government regulation into the cyberporn industry. Honestly, the only reason that the internet's red light districts have become such hives of scum and villainy is because the Better Business Bureau hasn't come after them. We ought to create a law saying that all porn sites must register with a special government branch or bureau, and that those who don't will get closed down. This way, we can put an end to the blind links and evil adware that have tarnished the porn industry.

3. Create free government web hosting. This might help improvement #2 get underway. The government offers free or low-cost hosting for anyone that asks, thus creating less pressure to use adware or illegal advertising tactics, because people won't be afraid of not having the money to pay for web space. Of course, the government could reject people who use the hosting for illegal business purposes. It would certainly be a huge boon to the independent hentai artists in need of hosting for their pics, since the free web hosts are all uptight, and the private ones sometimes aren't very nice.

4. Legalize Kazaa. The Recording Industry says that file-sharing is costing them millions of dollars a year. What a crock of shit. The reason they're losing millions of dollars a year is because THEY'RE SPENDING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR on spoiled musicians. For christ's sake, Mariah Carey got paid several million to leave her old company after her bizarre behaviour, and despite this, she got yet another company to sign her, with even more money. And God only knows how much money Courtney Love has wasted in various lawsuits, or how much she's wasting in trying to get her daughter back. And yet, for all that wasted money, she's produced no new music of her own since leaving Hole. [/b]

Quote:1. Ban any type of adware that undermines a person's control of their own computer. This includes any type of coding that adds links to someone's favorites list without their consent, or that changes their homepage without their consent, or that downloads programs without consent.

Yup, true. I think that has been banned already in a lot to most places. But sadly, that doesn't stop it from happening. The only way to really avoid it is to use Opera...

Quote:2. Put more government regulation into the cyberporn industry.

I sort of semi-agree with that. On one hand, I would be glad to be rid of all the crap you find when you browse porn sites, and all the child porn online could do with some regulating. On the other, I think it's unrealistic. First, there are WAY too many porn sites to make something like that possible. Secondly, broken links and popups aren't illegal. Also, each government can only regulate sites within its own country. If a porn site in Sweden has dialers, there's little the US government can do against it (except if all governments are in on it, which is also a little unrealistic.) And besides, the government would probably end up shutting down perfectly okay sites. Example: This one. If you looked at it the right -- or wrong -- way, you can easily see digimon hentai as child porn and beastiality, or, in some cases, child beastiality o.O

Quote:3. Create free government web hosting. This might help improvement #2 get underway. The government offers free or low-cost hosting for anyone that asks, thus creating less pressure to use adware or illegal advertising tactics, because people won't be afraid of not having the money to pay for web space.

Which would put tons of people out of business.

Quote: Of course, the government could reject people who use the hosting for illegal business purposes. It would certainly be a huge boon to the independent hentai artists in need of hosting for their pics, since the free web hosts are all uptight, and the private ones sometimes aren't very nice.

Like fuck. Can you really imagine the government hosting hentai? I can't, at least not in many countries. President Bush, for example, has a reasonably hard time accepting GAYS, for christ's sake. Him and his Republicans aren't going to have porn on state-owned servers. And they're not the only ones around the world.
Plus, countries should spend their cash on more important stuff. Let's face it, the world has greater problems than "not very nice webhosts". As soon as world hunger, crime, wars, destruction of the environment and shit like that ends, then we can talk. But not before that.
Oh, and having government hosting would be inviting censorship, which I basically consider to be a bad thing, even though there are exceptions.

Quote:4. Legalize Kazaa. The Recording Industry says that file-sharing is costing them millions of dollars a year. What a crock of shit.

I agree with that, but for other reasons. I mean, file-sharing really IS costing the Recording Industry millions of dollars. My main point against them is that they can actually afford it. I mean, for christ's sake, they make millions in the wink of an eye. They're not going to find themselves on the street anytime soon just because some people don't pay for their music. :?

Well, I had figured that we'd need a new president before creating the free webspace. Actually, what I really want is for there to be a public webhost that allows hentai content, because none of the free servers do, and it's really fucking annoying.

And yes, the government regulation of porn might lead to many ill-conceived shutdowns, and in response to this, I add another idea:

5. Re-define the term "child pornography". The current definitions are far too inclusive, and god only knows how many taxpayers' dollars have been wasted on arresting folks who just had pictures of naked children. I would just shave the definition down to "pictures of actual children engaged in graphic sex acts", or something like that. By Ashcroft's current standards, too many people become sex offenders (and tracking sex offenders costs quite a bit of money and time).

As for the difficulties of international porn regulation, it's not nearly as tough as you think. Consider the following:

- There's probably not much cyberporn being produced in the various military dictatorships or Muslim theocracies in Africa, so we can cross off several countries there.

- The Middle East hardly approves of the internet at all, so they can be discounted.

- China and North Korea are both doing a fine job of censoring porn (and damn near everything else), so we don't need to deal with them.

- There's nothing being produced at all in Antarctica, so that's a whole continent that we don't have to worry about.

Basically, rather than trying to regulate every country, we just need to regulate the ones that have internet access and that have a cyberporn industry. And while it is difficult to get them all to agree on things, internet pornography is one of those issues where a lot of people think alike. As long as we don't have the US negotiating the terms, it might actually work.

Quote:Actually, what I really want is for there to be a public webhost that allows hentai content, because none of the free servers do, and it's really fucking annoying.

Hmm, I wouldn't mind there being one of those either...

Quote:5. Re-define the term "child pornography". The current definitions are far too inclusive, and god only knows how many taxpayers' dollars have been wasted on arresting folks who just had pictures of naked children. I would just shave the definition down to "pictures of actual children engaged in graphic sex acts", or something like that. By Ashcroft's current standards, too many people become sex offenders (and tracking sex offenders costs quite a bit of money and time).

Good thinking. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I mean, as long as no real children are involved and harmed, why should it be illegal?

Quote:

As for the difficulties of international porn regulation, it's not nearly as tough as you think. Consider the following:

- There's probably not much cyberporn being produced in the various military dictatorships or Muslim theocracies in Africa, so we can cross off several countries there.

- The Middle East hardly approves of the internet at all, so they can be discounted.

- China and North Korea are both doing a fine job of censoring porn (and damn near everything else), so we don't need to deal with them.

- There's nothing being produced at all in Antarctica, so that's a whole continent that we don't have to worry about.

Basically, rather than trying to regulate every country, we just need to regulate the ones that have internet access and that have a cyberporn industry. And while it is difficult to get them all to agree on things, internet pornography is one of those issues where a lot of people think alike. As long as we don't have the US negotiating the terms, it might actually work.

Ah, some good points there! Okay, maybe at least that aspect of it would work. But still, I think there are too many porn sites out there to monitor them all.

Also, I still dislike the idea of government censorship. Governments aren't always reasonable. For example, scat porn is illegal in the UK. Now, even though I don't like scat, I seriously don't see what's wrong with it. Is anybody involved getting harmed? No. They just don't think it's "proper", and that, IMHO, is a lousy reason for censoring something. I think stuff like this could happen with other kinks and fetishes as well if government control of the cyberporn industry really were to become reality.

I've got a good imagination, so in an emergency, I can live without porn. One part of this interests me.

Quote:4. Legalize Kazaa. The Recording Industry says that file-sharing is costing them millions of dollars a year. What a crock of shit. The reason they're losing millions of dollars a year is because THEY'RE SPENDING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR on spoiled musicians. For christ's sake, Mariah Carey got paid several million to leave her old company after her bizarre behaviour, and despite this, she got yet another company to sign her, with even more money. And God only knows how much money Courtney Love has wasted in various lawsuits, or how much she's wasting in trying to get her daughter back. And yet, for all that wasted money, she's produced no new music of her own since leaving Hole.

It would be nice if the bad artists could be paid less, but the laws of supply and demand give them their ridiculous contracts. As long as stupid preteen girls still like that shit, they'll keep raking it in. The same goes for actors; they make way too much. I blame the celebrities, the agents, and the producers for the cost of CD's and movie tickets. That doesn't stop me from buying CD's, because I like the good artists and want them to get what they deserve. However, I haven't gone to the movies (at full price) in over a year. As long as other people keep buying $10 movie tickets...you get the idea. So should Kazaa be legalized? I don't think so, but for only one reason. Artists with true confidence in their work can make it legally listenable (not downloadable) over the internet, and then they can let the public decide if they want to buy the CD. That's what The Offspring did with their latest album. CD's aren't cheap, but at least you get to keep them (unlike the movie tickets; you know what I mean). I usually get my money's worth from a CD.

urban dream Wrote:Ah, some good points there! Okay, maybe at least that aspect of it would work. But still, I think there are too many porn sites out there to monitor them all.

Also, I still dislike the idea of government censorship. Governments aren't always reasonable. For example, scat porn is illegal in the UK. Now, even though I don't like scat, I seriously don't see what's wrong with it. Is anybody involved getting harmed? No. They just don't think it's "proper", and that, IMHO, is a lousy reason for censoring something. I think stuff like this could happen with other kinks and fetishes as well if government control of the cyberporn industry really were to become reality.

Well, I'm not saying that the governments should be able to censor porn. The aim would be more to clean up the business aspects of the porn industry. A lot of porn sites (especially the "thumbnail gallery" variety) use tactics like blind links and adware so that visitors just end up at the paysites. And they extort the hell out of their customers, with ads that say, "THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT!", so that poor frightened people go and buy Internet Eraser, out of the fear that they'll get arrested. It's false advertisement and extortion, and if other industries tried such tactics, they'd be sued. And meanwhile, the porn sites still get away with it, because people just dismiss the porn industry as being a load of perverts.

Yeah, it would be great if we could get rid of that aspect, that's true... But unfortunately, I can't see a government coming along anytime soon that'd be willing to regulate the cyberporn industry without censoring it unnecessarily.

(Plus, I still think it can't be done because there are just too many porn sites out there.)