Reading: Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering
From Software Business Community
Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering
- ISBN-10: 0-262-54196-3
- ISBN-13: 978-0-262-54196-1
Authors
Edited by: Ronald J. Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski and Jonathan Zittrain
Contributors: Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva, Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, and Jonathan Zittrain
Summary
Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering is a product of a global research project regarding Internet censorship. The project - called the OpenNet Initiative - includes a wide variety of scholars, lawyers, and computer and Internet specialists from such universities as Toronto, Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford.
The book first describes the scope and depth of Internet filtering across the world, and shows that censorship of the Internet by states is an increasing trend not only in more politically repressive countries, but in western societies as well. Filtering is undertaken for a variety of reasons related to issues such as politics, culture and religion, sexuality, domestic security, etc. Also the different technical and regulative means by which filtering is done varies.
After analyzing the filtering practices in different countries, the book moves on to discuss "the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions"[1]. In addition, detailed filtering reports for 40 different countries is provided.
Relationship to software business
It is clear that Internet plays a crucial part in software business, and therefore also the filtering of Internet has wide consequences for software firms and the industry as a whole. These consequences can vary depending on the situation and the firm in question. One major requirement to do business in a country involves agreeing to the country's laws and regulations regarding Internet filtering. For example, Google was unreachable from China until the firm agreed with the Chinese government to filter out some search results. Also, Internet communities might get censored in some countries due to "forbidden" material that they may contain. On the other hand, some firms have even seized the business opportunity and started to provide states with various software products and services to implement filtering.
Whatever the case, software companies should be aware of the various political, legislative and technical aspects of Internet filtering, especially when considering international expansion to countries where Internet filtering is present. For this, the book gives a comprehensive and multidimensional overview, as well as detailed reports on country-level filtering practices. Furthermore, the book provides analysis on the dynamics and development of Internet censorship and gives a potential outlook of the future of Internet.
Citation
Ronald J. Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski and Jonathan Zittrain. Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, MIT Press, 2008.
Media
Rob Faris, the OpenNet Initiative's Research Director and John Palfrey, one of the project's Principal Investigators, lead a discussion of Internet filtering and provided a glimpse of the results of ONI's first global survey of Internet censorship more on youtube.
Links