Monday, November 10, 2008

Obamania??

Via Tom Coates of ORG:

Obama has a few statements on his new website about technology plans that may be relevant to the IT/IP community:

In particular:

"Protect the Openness of the Internet: A key reason the Internet has
been such a success is because it is the most open network in history.
It needs to stay that way. Barack Obama strongly supports the
principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open
competition on the Internet."

"We live in the most information-abundant age in history and the
people who develop the skills to utilize its benefits are the people
who will succeed in the 21st century. Obama values our First Amendment
freedoms and our right to artistic expression and does not view
regulation as the answer to these concerns."

"Safeguard our Right to Privacy: The open information platforms of the
21st century can also tempt institutions to violate the privacy of
citizens. As president, Barack Obama will strengthen privacy
protections for the digital age and will harness the power of
technology to hold government and business accountable for violations
of personal privacy."

Sounds good doesn't it - net neutrality. certainly. Privacy protection definitely - could we finally see the rise of omnibus privacy regulation in the commercial sector of the US? But many wiser people than me are worried about what "artistic expression" means. Remix artists right to rip mix burn, or rights for music labels? Optimism says the former; realism the latter.. does Obama want to be darling of Hollywood, or the opiate of the masses? anyone care to speculate?

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