For my post in class this week, I was asked to answer the question, “What would happen if property rights did not apply to the Internet?”. My first thought was do they really apply to the Internet as it stands today? We live in a world where information can be obtained, copied and pasted with the right-click of a mouse. Often times we have to go extreme measures to protect our intellectual property on the Web and I often wonder if these extreme measures are safe but what would the alternative be, a World Wide Web regulated by the government?

I have a family member currently living in China and was intrigued by the fact that the People’s Republic of China is currently censoring the internet under its administrative regulations. It is estimated that China has more than 30,000 internet police who instantly erase critical comments that are posted to blogs and web sites, blocks web sites and monitors the internet access of individuals. Other countries such as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam also oversee and censor Internet sites.

I wonder if the US will become a country with governmental internet regulations and censorship. How do others feel about government censorship online?

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