Internet Income Lessons

During the year 2008, Rasmussen conducted a poll to find out where Americans stood with respect to Internet regulation.  49% said that they thought the government should regulate the Internet in much the same way that it regulates radio and television.

This trend toward government regulation of the Internet is apparently due to fears about child pornography and other tasteless websites being available for children to view, as well as social networking abuse by predatory adults. 

A Brief Review of Censorship.

China is not the only place that censors Internet content. The trend is on a rise worldwide.  For example, in the UK, a page wtihin Wikipedia (and in some instances, the entire Wikipedia site) was blocked because of a complaint filed with a quasi-governmental agency known as the IWF.  An album cover was viewed as offensive and inappropriate. Since it was a photo of a physical good, there was the possibility that Amazon’s US auction and shopping content would be blocked from UK viewers.

Also in the censorship arena is the increasing volume of politicians who are complaining about blogs not correctly reporting the facts about their campaigns or other political events.  The regulatory environment may be further impacted by journalists and mainstream media who are seeing online content take a bite out of their readership and sales.  While news and political reporting are not currently regulated in the United States, it would not be surprising if politicians begin to talk about licensing requirements or some form of authority ranking for blog owners and other online reporters.

Nationwide Filtering.

If it becomes law, Australia’s ‘great firewall’ will be the most restrictive mandatory government control of the Internet in the world’s democratic countries.  The goal is to filter out child pornography, but the firewall has nonetheless sparked fierce debate, including free speech arguments.  Reportedly, the government will ban at least 1300 websites. A problem is the lack of transparency or right to dispute a ban because the government has not disclosed the urls of the sites that will be on the banned list.  Despite the fact that the filter is not totally accurate or effective, it slows down Internet speeds by up to 86%. 

Internet Taxation.

For years, there have been rumors in the US about a federal internet tax, but nothing has come of it.  Many Americans, including Congressional representatives, are leery of an Internet sales tax.  Budget-challenged state governments, on the other hand, are eyeing the Internet as a source of revenue.  For instance, the state of New York has imposed a tough state sales tax law that would make non-resident vendors responsible for reporting taxes on sales to New York residents.  Amazon, which has affiliates all over the world, has sued, and as of this writing, a decision has not been rendered.  Watch for Internet taxation to become an issue in upcoming years.

Licensing and Disclosures.

There has been talk by some legislators about licensing Internet use.  Their rationale is that if a person has to get a license to drive a car, he or she needs to get a license to surf the Internet’s information highway.  License requirements would include basic knowledge about anti-virus programs, email use and so forth.  It is unlikely that this idea will gain any traction, but on the flip side, licensing and disclosures for Internet content publication may not be so ludicrous.  Regulatory accountability is not a far-fetched idea, particularly if one views copyright suits, politicians complaining about the accuracy of news and blogs, and stringent regulation of medical claims with respect to health products.  For instance, the new Internet regulations in Canada (if passed in February 2009) will address Canadian content and copyright issues and might impose a ranking system on websites that is similar to movie ranking systems.  Given Americans’ desire to see Internet regulation that is similar to radio and television regulation, the logical conclusion is that Internet publishers would need to register with whatever agency regulates online publication.

Conclusion.

The foregoing paragraphs are just a glimpse at what has been going on and what future trends may be.  Because so many people refuse to take responsibility for their children’s Internet activities and for their own Internet use, it is likely that we as Internet publishers will see an increasing amount of regulatory proposals.

The first step toward protecting oneself from Internet regulation is to publish a legally sound privacy policy statement on your website.    You can find out how to write a privacy policy at the NotGuru blog.

Internet regulation and trends are periodically discussed here:  Internet Regulation articles at the NotGuru blog.