Should We License Internet Use?
from the of-course-not dept
As colleges are starting to force their students to take special computer literacy classes before they can get an online account - and fining them for doing things like spreading viruses, some are wondering if we shouldn't do similar things for the wider population and require an "internet license" before you can go online. The idea is that you would learn all the things you shouldn't do (don't click on attachments you don't know, don't respond to spam, etc.) and then make you pass a test. This is, of course, a silly suggestion. Unlike with driving, what makes sense a today may not make any sense a year from now. Besides, most people on the roads today have drivers licenses - and yet they still do incredibly stupid things they were clearly told not to do when they got the license.
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Seat belt law for the internet
http://aplawrence.com/Blog/B509.html
but the basic idea is like seatbelt laws: if you get caught for some other eason and aren't wearing it, you get an extra fine.
What "catches" you? Evidence that your machine is infected by a virus. If you are up to date (using an approved os version with proper patches and virus or firewall protection), no problem. Otherwise, you are fined, maybe even your machine confiscated or barred from the internet.
Enforcement would be spotty, but just like seat belt laws, proably pretty effective.
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Philosophically, I'm all for fewer idiots...
Oh wait, I see the lines already forming for the Microsoft Certified Users License and DRM registration because what people really need is Gates and Ashkroft's blessing before they go pay to look at offically sanctioned content
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Internet License...
Then we can worry about an internet license, since more people die or are killed by the very fact of being born (100% rate) compared to being killed while surfing the internet (0.0000001%, and Joe was killed by a massive brain embalism while browsing Pr0n.)
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the wrong model
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Re: Seat belt law for the internet
Thank you for thinking up more dumb unenforceable laws.
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Re: the wrong model
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Re: Seat belt law for the internet
Doesn't your idea completely play into DRM-on-each-PC (aka. Palladium) crowd
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