Tuesday, December 13, 2011

[qrvgjjtk] Unclogging anonymous publishing

Anonymous publishing is desirable (even essential) for democratic society, e.g., The Federalist Papers, whistleblowers.  Suppose an anonymous publishing platform is developed.  It quickly becomes flooded with copyright violations, child pornography, and spam, preventing important speech from getting through.  (Freenet is the stereotypical example.)

Client-side tagging can defeat spam.

Child pornography can be reduced on the anonymous platform by legalizing its non-anonymous transmission.

Similarly, file sharing of copyrighted material can be reduced on the anonymous platform by legalizing non-commercial copying.

The proper functioning of a democracy is being indirectly impeded by censorship of child pornography and overzealous copyright enforcement.  One restriction of free speech causes another restriction because of channel capacity.

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