Rick Siegel Prespectives on Freedom and Liberty

Nicholas Sakozy is using all his powers to push a law to restrict Internet access. The law will allow French provided Internet users to be cut off for a year if there is suspicion of downloading free music. Once an EU government has shown it can decide, for any reason, to take away your Internet it can do so for any reason it concocts.

The bill proposes disconnecting users if they download music or movies illegally. There is no definition to what is illegal, who will be the arbiter and the bill makes the user guilty and the burden of proving innocence put on the user. This is like going back to witch-hunts in the dark ages, something Sarkozy is hoping for in his goal to rule Europe.

At issue here is the deep-pocketed music industry working the inside track to get Sarkozy to implement the draconian laws. The governments and industry would like nothing better than to be able to control who gets Internet and who does not as they dictate what you can do on it and who you pay. Privacy is damned! Freedom is damned! Sarkozy wants to tell you can't have the Internet if you download a song and it will be your responsibility to defend yourself, not theirs, to prove your guilt. You are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. The government only has to say you did it and needs nothing other than some subjective reason to take you down.

Music is not the real issue here at all. What is at issue is the ability of government to take over your rights to Internet access for any reason. Once the government has shown it can decide, for any reason, to take away your Internet, it can do so for any reason it concocts. This is a great blow to an open platform for people’s communication.

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