The fight between Net Supporters
and the Real World Copyright Protectors would be a long drawn process since
it involves the resolution of a conflict between two distinct civilizations-One
which is established and having all legal support and the other which is
emerging and holds the promise for the future of the Global Civilization
but lacks any legal support.
The fight is now being taken
not only to the downloading of Music but also to the saving of web pages
in the cached archives of Google and threatens to disturb the foundation
on which the Web has developed as a new dimension of life.
Any new legal provisions
that are being set up are all being developed by the Meta Society representatives
under the present framework of laws for the Meta Society. They are only
aimed at providing concessions to the Netizens and are unlikely to satisfy
the Netizen community. If this is left un addressed, the Net will a breeding
ground for Cyber terrorism of a kind that will have the moral support of
the majority and threaten the peaceful coexistence of the law abiding Citizens
and Netizens. We therefore need a new legal thinking to satisfy the Netizen
community while at the same time addressing the concerns of the Meta society.
It is in this connection
that naavi.org proposes that the Cyber World should create a “Protected
Zone”. Entry to these Protected Zones may be restricted either through
the ISP s to a class of members or only to those who identify themselves
through Digital Certificates.
What this will ensure is
that the activities of the surfers within this zone will be determined
by the rules that the Community determines. The zone will be like a “Private
Club” and the establishments who set up web sites there and the visitors
need not press for any change in the general regulations for the Net Community.
Let the Net as a free society continue to exist outside this zone. The
establishments who publish E-Books, E-Music etc can restrict their activities
to the Club Zone and have legal recourse to any violations independent
of any other laws.
The Merchant Establishments
at the Club Zone will have to however contend with reduced traffic for
the time being. They can however host free sites in the Non Club Zone and
continue to promote the use of the Club Zone as a “Revenue Generation Concept”.
If there rights are respected by the Community and their pricing is proper,
the Society will decide to support this concept. May be it will be functioning
like “Paid Channels” of the Cable World delivered through a DTH facility
in an encrypted form and with a client side meter.
The experiment can start
right away since many of the sites already have “Membership Zones” on a
payment basis. What is lacking is a means to consolidate such sites under
a common banner. This can also be done through a directory at Yahoo or
Google, which lists such sites separately.
Icann or New.net can think
of new TLD, .premium or .exclusive, .club etc to further simplify this
process.
Naavi
October 15, 2001.
