Global Networks and Local Values A Comparative Look at Germany and the United States (2001) / Chapter Skim
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10 Principles and Conclusions
10 Principles and Conclusions
Pages 224-232
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From page 224... ...
10.1 GOVERNMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF LOCAL VALUES As noted in Chapter 3, the values of a society are both formal and substantive. Because the world is increasingly diverse and interconnected, the committee believes that modern societies are better served by values that emphasize process and mutual respect than by those that seek to establish orthodoxies.
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From page 225... ...
Thus the Internet policy of government should be part of a larger strategy aimed at promoting the healthy evolution of a society's value set, in response to the many changes occurring as that society becomes better educated, more diverse, and more fully connected to the wider world around it. 10.2 DEMOCRACY Policy interventions to channel or direct the impact of global networks on democracy and political institutions are fraught with difficulty, and it would be naive to expect that political leaders would make neutral decisions where their own future power base is concerned.
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From page 226... ...
each have, in principle, advantages and disadvantages in promoting democratic goals. Network-based information resources are probably more effective in providing access to information and to political forums, and to the maintenance of a plurality of ideas, although network users have the ability to determine what information reaches them, thus limiting what ideas can reach people.
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From page 227... ...
Policy statements by national governments, and the actual establishment of a number of hybrid regulatory approaches, are promising signs that new forms of international governance will help implement the recommendations of this report. 10.4 FREE SPEECH As noted in Chapter 5, the United States and Germany both recognize a constitutional right to freedom of expression.
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From page 228... ...
. However, ccommercial law does not work well if large groups are indirectly or only potentially affected for example, when child pornography endangers children, hate speech intimidates minority groups, or Nazi ideology threatens democratic government.
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From page 229... ...
Primary legal information including laws, judicial opinions, and administrative rulings should not be excluded from freedom-of-information regimes merely to protect a property interest of a private entity that uses the data to create value-added databases. If copyright protection is granted to such entities, it should not cover the raw data on which the information product is based.
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From page 230... ...
Of particular concern is the possibility of "technological lock-in" during these next several years as the structure and use patterns of the Internet develop. An untested postulate, put forward by a number of East Asian and Middle Eastern countries, is that there is a strong connection between their cultural values and their political structures and that global networks can be a threat to both.
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From page 231... ...
It is not yet clear whether this will lead to two worlds real space and cyberspace with different rules and mores concerning privacy, or whether there will be spillover effects that create tensions or changes in local cultural practices. A separate cyberworld of "Netizens" is not likely to achieve any permanence, even as electronic network penetration and use grow over the years to come.
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