Internet Law - Fall 2006

Ajit Dang writes,

I was reading over your excerpt “The Internet as a Source of Regulatory Arbitrage” (Section 3 of the syllabus, reading #2) … had a question/thought:

You note that almost every attempt to block access to material can be circumvented easily, censorship is futile, and the internet generally promotes liberal democratic values. But when I was reading the section about “Asian Examples of the Practical Limits to Censorship” I began to wonder just how daunting the task is for China … when China can enlist internet super-giants like Yahoo and Google as censoring gateways/gatekeepers, isn’t China’s burden somewhat alleviated? I mean, yea, Yahoo and Google don’t own the internet, but they certainly have laaaarge footprints and immense capabilities. The more China becomes a magnet for internet commerce, the more internet giants want a piece of the action. And if they want a piece of the action, they gotta be willing to do China’s evil deeds …

The critical thing is to look at the dates: I wrote the “Regulatory Arbitrage” article several years ago. A lot has changed: it could be that I was wrong — unduly optimistic or pessimistic depending on your views –and that in fact some countries, those willing to pay the legal, financial, and social costs, might be able to set up a ‘Great Firewall of China’ (or whatever).

We’ll see — if we’re not seeing already?