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1) a) One result of increased use of the Internet has been a loss of control by local authorities, from cities and counties right up to nations. Is it right that communities should effectively be losing the right to collect sales tax or to regulate gambling? b) Should countries such as China be able to filter the internet access received by their citizens? How is this different from the US taking steps to limit access to content prohibited by its laws, such as child pornography or copyrighted materials. 2) a) One of the readings focused on Americans operating Internet gambling sites in Costa Rica. These were US citizens running operations used primarily by other US citizens. How did the gambling operations they were running differ from more traditional, and illegal, gambling services? In this case, do you think that the US is right to act to prevent them from offering services legal in Costa Rica? b) The other reading concerned HavenCo's plans to turn Sealand into a "data haven." This effort appears to have been unsuccessful, but raises some important issues that are unlikely to go away. Why might the existence of tiny nations and quasi-nations with a lack of local laws governing things like spam, pornography or corporate disclosure prove far more troubling in the modern world than ten or twenty years ago? What might the social implications be if corporations did start storing their email archives and other records in locations beyond the reach of American law? 3) The guest lecture concerned a Turkish community website devoted to public, pseudonymous confessions. What were the main factors drawing users to sites like this? Would you ever use a system of this kind? With what kinds of non-Internet genres or kinds of communication media might aspects of this experience be compared? Links
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