FARK.com: (6283411) Internet declared a human right. You'll be working tech support for the rest of your life

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(Some Guy)		Internet declared a human right. You'll be working tech support for the rest of your life (good.is)		68
		More: Interesting, internet, tech support, human rights, internet access, food deserts, Julian Assange

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3580 clicks; posted to Main » on 10 Jun 2011 at 5:47 PM | Favorite | share:

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GoldSpider		2011-06-10 06:58:51 PM

Odd silence from the "everything-I-want-for-free-should-be-considered-a-human-right" crowd.

Nem Wan		2011-06-10 07:03:49 PM

Hypothetical Imperative: What does this really mean?

It means that the UN is pretty much exactly as stupid as you thought they were, collectively.

Let's work on the "clean drinking water" and "food" items on the list before we start ticking off multi-core desktops and smartphones, kids.

Nothing stupid about it. These days you need the Internet to make demands for water and food be known.

Summer Glau's Love Slave		2011-06-10 07:09:20 PM

octopied: Internet access in jail, then!

Its already been done. Just click on the Politics Tab.

/Rusty chainsaw rape and home destruction via C4 have been threatened there.
//I kid you not.

GoldSpider		2011-06-10 07:13:44 PM

lacydog: I'm not sure I agree with "human right", but it's hard to understate the importance of ensuring that every person has ~~reliable and affordable internet access~~ a modern, functional government in a developed country.

FTFY. You can't get anything to the needy if the government takes it all.

akula		2011-06-10 07:16:22 PM

Inflatablelovellama: When your 'right' depends on the efforts of others, either it's not a right, or you have the right to own a slave.

Fully agree. I know others here don't, but I do.

If you look at the Bill of Rights, the assorted rights listed would take action from another party in order to violate them. In order to violate my freedom of speech, you must act to prevent me from expression. In order for me to incriminate myself, you must force me to do so. In order to illegally search me, you must, well, search me illegally.

The only way I'm on board with the internet being a human right is if it is defined as you should have the opportunity, if otherwise available and you are willing to exchange goods for the service, to have internet access. People should not get internet merely because they exist. I agree that such information flow should not be censored by outside parties, but if you refuse to pay for internet, then fark you, I don't have to do it for you.

The list of things being considered human rights nowadays is getting pretty damn hard to keep up with. I'm waiting for a full blown smartphone with unlimited data to be considered a human right. I figure that should be done by late September with the way things have been going.

ThrobblefootSpectre		2011-06-10 07:17:03 PM

Next up: Playstation3 and WOW are are human rights.

ThrobblefootSpectre		2011-06-10 07:33:59 PM

Inflatablelovellama: When your 'right' depends on the efforts of others, either it's not a right, or you have the right to own a slave.

Exactly. Human rights do not require other humans to be laboring on your behalf. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness make sense. Those rights simply require other people to NOT do things to you. Like kill you, enslave you, etc.

But when you start declaring healthcare and internet to be human rights, that essentially says that someone has the "right" to make others labor for them, even if unwillingly. Such "rights" are contradictory with life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

legion_of_doo		2011-06-10 07:34:36 PM

nunpunter: Or it means that a despotic 3rd world dictator is violating human rights when he tries to censor net access to his entire country, and would be subject to the same strongly worded warning from the UN that people get for murdering their citizens en masse.

"Yep. Massacres in Rwanda or Darfur... *yawn*. Did they get their strongly worded letter yet? I hope I'm not double parked. (HAHA, kidding)

"Let's draft a resolution about the internet!"

/If Bashar al Assad goes to the Hague for putting down the street demonstrations (or whatever we are supposed to say), I'm sure the "internet denial" crime against humanity will be the thing that makes him regret his actions.

Procedural Texture		2011-06-10 07:37:39 PM

Honest Bender: Article declared a repeat 6264654 (new window)

Dang it. There goes my green.
Good eye.

Ronin_S		2011-06-10 07:55:16 PM

I usually more think of 'not getting brutally raped or maimed for attending a peaceful protest' as a human right, but considering how important the internet is for the free flow of information, I can see where they're coming from.

I think internet should be classified as 'vital infrastructure', like roads, emergency services, indoor plumbing and electricity. It's not a fundamental right, but it is an important part of maintaining a modern and competitive country. Maybe they should make a new classification of that sort, rather than just lumping it in with 'human right'. But nobody ever said the UN was flexible, adaptable and able to accommodate a rapidly changing situation.

llewsyr		2011-06-10 08:39:41 PM

I think you guys are missing part of the picture here. This is more likely in response to all those pending "3 strikes" laws the RIAA/MPAA are trying to force down everyone's throats in the US/Europe. Maybe the Secretary-General will send a sternly-worded letter to the Righthaven lawyers.

RAGUS		2011-06-10 08:56:10 PM

Felgraf: "As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -UN Comissioner Pravin Lal, 'UN Declaration of Rights'", from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

I quote this game quite a bit, and this is one of my favorites. Good show, sir. Good show indeed.

/Provost Zakarov ftw
//Sister Miriam was always a pain
///still have my copy, may have to play a few rounds soon

Rvalldrgg		2011-06-10 09:56:14 PM

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of lolcats.

MasterThief		2011-06-10 10:35:52 PM

Ummm... no.

Freedom of speech is a human right - it's something that governments cannot rightfully take away, infringe, or abridge.

Internet access is a commodity - it's something you pay other people to give you.

The failure to understand the difference between human rights and commodities is doing nothing but making modern politics and laws stupider by the day.

/i.e. the whole healthcare debate

wildcardjack		2011-06-10 11:10:49 PM

MasterThief: Freedom of speech is a human right - it's something that governments cannot rightfully take away, infringe, or abridge.

Internet access is a commodity - it's something you pay other people to give you.

Mass communication, a fundamental aspect of free speech, is never without costs. Unless you are only going to shout your message from a street corner you will run into a need to have non-speech capital equipment at your disposal.

I can envision a few Orwellian court decisions leading to the regulation of the internet as "a public good" like the airwaves with broadcast radio. This could be done "to protect the public from malicious activities" and require the licensing of server operators and websites. From there in it just becomes a matter of choosing how those licenses are granted.

For the longest time there were regulations restricting the content of printed material sent through the mail. In a very certain sense the mail is a communications network, with packet switching and whatnot.

angrygrizzly		2011-06-10 11:22:54 PM

I'm surprised the UN went for this.

With Internet access as a human right, we can find out quickly which UN troops are raping the natives this week and giving them STDs. That won't do much for their public relations.

chookbillion		2011-06-10 11:39:06 PM

Nona Horowitz wants right to be AW.

Scifientologist		2011-06-11 02:09:10 PM

muck4doo: Texting

No it should be punishable by death.

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