Re: [dvd-discuss] Internet: an independent country?

[Steve Stearns <sterno(at)bigbrother.net>]

On Thu, 2002-06-13 at 11:42, Jim Bauer wrote:
> 
> We all know how stupid some of the recent cases have been WRT
> jurisdiction over the Internet.  If the pattern holds, everyone will
> always be subject to the jurisdiction of every last place on earth at
> the same time.
> 
> Has anyone pursued the idea of the Internet being "independent"?
> Either as its own country (assuming one can have a country without
> land), or perhaps more like how Antarctica is handled.

Well, to begin with, the way Antarctica is handled is a very unusual
case.  It's unusual because, THERE'S NOTHING THERE :).  I mean basically
it's only real value is as a research facility, and thus there's no
forces to drive any sort of conflict.  If they discovered a big oil
reserve there, suddenly all those scientists would be bumped out by
soldiers and politicians.  By contrast, the Internet is of tremendous
value to just about everybody.  

As far as being it's own country is concerned, I've thought about that
more than once.  The problem of course is that there's no power base
that is completely on-line.  All countries are ultimately established by
some power marking off some territory and saying, "this is mine, go
somewhere else".  There's really no entity capable of doing that and I'm
not sure that there could ever be because of the decentralized nature of
the Internet.  

---Steve