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Cynical Cyberspace
Posted by Raul Ruiz on Monday, July 15 @ 15:04:07 EDT
Contributed by sivav
Copyright
sivav writes "Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Copyrights and Copywrongs, has published an article version of a talk he gave in London last month for Open Democracy. He gave a similar talk at 2600.org's H2K2 last weekend. Here is a summary:

Cyberspace is an essentially cynical medium, says the leading internet thinker Siva Vaidhyanathan, in a talk presented at the London offices of openDemocracy on 6 June 2002. But an illusion-free awareness of the character of the net paradoxically opens up the ethical discussion needed to guide and regulate it.

Conventional wisdom about cynicism is that it is corrosive. It is rude and unworkable, uncomfortable and nihilistic. When I teach, I ask my students to name a popular character that embodies their assumed definition of cynicism. They always cite the character George Costanza from the television comedy Seinfeld.

But the roots of cynicism lie in ancient Greece where Diogenes of Sinope was exiled from Athens for masturbating in the marketplace in the 4th century BCE.

Note: An interesting read."
 
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· Copyrights and Copywrongs,
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"User's Login" | Login/Create an Account | 4 comments
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Re: Cynical Cyberspace (Score: 1, Interesting)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Tuesday, July 16 @ 13:04:32 EDT
Vaidhyanathan concludes that the Internet has a "cyncial character" because it enables a wide range of anonymous and cross-jurisdicitonal actions.

Yet then he apparently acknowledges (by reference to Valenti and the CBDTPA), that this cynical character is not inherent, and there are efforts to regulate the Net. So is it he saying the Internet can't be controlled or that it hasn't been controlled yet?

He then switches gears to suggest normative arguments that the Net shouldn't be controlled. E.g., he states, "The terrorists also used automobiles, photocopiers, and telephones to execute their plans. But only the cynical technologies [read: the Internet] attract this [enchanced] level of scrutiny – as if they were the only devices capable of fostering abuse."

But the Internet is still new, I would say, and society has already made a provisional peace with previous technologies, such as automobiles, photocopiers, and telephones, by subjecting them to legislative regulations (speed limits, copyright notices, etc.). The ultimate effects of worldwide networked communication have yet to be ascertained.

He's right that there is a struggle over fair use. He suggests "we" should work it out by finding, collectively, "a set of reasonable protocols – an ethical cynicism." This is a noble goal, but it implies a belief that our legislative system is capable of heeding the conclusions of reasoned ethical debate over copyright issues. That would certainly be great, though I confess to being a bit cynical.


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