p2pnet.net News:- I was undecided about Live8 until earlier this week when Bob Geldof turned up on every radio and TV station that would have him to condemn eBay for daring to allow ticket-holders to resell their tickets to his consciousness-raising concert.

At that point all of the concerns I’d had about the effectiveness of holding a large-scale rock concert as a way of raising awareness of serious political issues, the neo-colonialist lack of African involvement or African artists, the way that Live8 had derailed the more measured campaigning of the rest of the Make Poverty History coalition and the sanctimonious preaching of the former Boomtown Rat crystallised into revulsion.

For Geldof was no different to the Sikh leaders who objected to the staging of the play Behtzi in Birmingham last year. Their threats forced the theatre to halt the production because of fears that demonstrations would become violent. Geldof threatened eBay with disruption and loss of reputation, calling on users to undermine its business and break the terms of their membership. As an act of cultural terrorism it was just as objectionable and may have serious consequences for the long-term shape of the online world.

After all, if Geldof can get items removed from auction, who else is going to use this as a tactic in future?

I don’t blame eBay for caving in. You can’t look to the private sector to defend your freedom of speech, and the contract every eBay user signs up to when they start to use the service means that the company has final discretion over what can and can’t be sold.

Whether it’s legal to sell the tickets isn’t the point. Geldof whipped up a mob to protest about something he personally didn’t like, and eBay decided that it wasn’t worth the damage to Its reputation to go against him. Bob wins, and it’s no good complaining.

But the company’s action does demonstrate clearly that, despite the still-popular myth, the Internet is far from being a haven for free speech, freedom of expression or even free trade. We know that repressive regimes in countries like China and Saudi Arabia censor net content, but the same thing happens everywhere.

We see it when ISPs take down websites on the basis of an unfounded allegation of copyright infringement, often without bothering to check with the site owner.

We see it when BT uses its Cleanfeed service to restrict access to a list of websites provided for it by non-accountable amateur net policemen at the Internet Watch Foundation just because of claims that they host images of child abuse.

We see it when Microsoft does a deal with the Chinese government to stop anyone there using the word ‘democracy’ in the title of their MSN-hosted weblog.

And have you ever tried to buy a song from Apple’s French music store on a UK credit card so you can pay €0.99 – 68p – instead of 79p?

But that’s the private sector for you: they are not interested in allowing people freedom, only in doing business. If the cost of free speech or free expression or free access is perceived to be too great they will restrict it.

We shouldn’t blame them for this – if I was a senior manager at Microsoft I’d do the same in China. After all, promoting freedom of speech doesn’t do much to enhance shareholder value if it puts you in conflict with a host government or gets manipulative egomaniacs trashing you on the airwaves.

In the end this isn’t eBay’s problem. While their actions saddened me I can understand and even sympathise with their position, and their decision to suspend the accounts of those foolish people who thought that it was clever to put in fake bids for millions of pounds shows that they haven’t quite gone over to the dark side.

But what it clearly shows is that we have to look elsewhere for our freedoms, because neither the network nor the private companies that provide so much of the infrastructure and so many of the services will secure them.

A few years ago the Internet was free because the tools available to monitor, control, manage and track users were not up to the task. Cleanfeed would have been impossible ten years ago. As these back doors, grey areas and subtle failings of the mechanisms of control have been removed and repaired, so we find ourselves at the mercy of the corporations.

And since governments are much fonder of passing laws which say what you shall not do – sell tickets to football matches, poke too much fun at religion, remain anonymous – than those which offer positive guarantees of what you shall be permitted to do, we’re in big trouble.

There is no law that says that eBay will provide a market for any legal transaction, but if there had been then the company could have pointed to it when Geldof hit the airwaves and said ‘don’t blame us – we’re just obeying the law’.

If we want freedom online then we need laws that guarantee it. We can’t trust the technology, because it is getting better and better at control and surveillance, as China makes clear We can’t trust the private sector, not because they are devious or anti-freedom, but simply because it is not and never has been their role to preserve our core liberties.

In the end we have to appeal to the rule of law, to the hard-won Human Rights Act, to laws which ban restraint of trade or require equality of access to all. It may not be popular in the US, where the belief that government can do nothing right is still widespread, but it’s the only way we’re going to keep free speech and free trade online.

And meanwhile, I’ll spend July 2 doing something that minimises my exposure to Live8 and all that it stands for – the popstar mentality that believes that a bunch of ageing musicians and a bunch of wannabe millionaires prancing around a few stages can do anything to raise awareness or affect political will.

Maybe I’ll go and spend the day helping out at my local Oxfam store, selling fairtrade products and doing the small scale work on the ground that can really make a difference in the long run, rather than the grandiose gesture that changes nothing but makes some famous people feel good about their wealth.

Bill Thompson – andfinally.com
[Thompson is a UK-based writer and broadcaster.]

===============

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
condemn eBay – Bob Geldorf stomps eBay, p2pnet, June 15, 2005

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2005 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 2177 times