The landscape of the internet and those who, like myself, write and maintain blogs, continue to challenge and confuse and apparently frighten many people. It is not simple to explain all that the Web and the bloggers are doing and want to do. I expect we will see more of the efforts like those being considered now in Italy to require all who post info on the Web to have a license.
Ginger at MCB wrote of this today and has several links to read on the Italian plan:
"Recently, Italian lawmakers once again took aim at modern life, introducing an incredibly broad law that would effectively require all bloggers, and even users of social networks, to register with the state. Even a harmless blog about a favourite football squad or a teenager grousing about life’s unfairness would be subject to government oversight, and even taxation – even if it’s not a commercial website“.
Keeping government out of self-publishing will continue to be problematic for several reasons - current publishing and other media businesses don't like losing control of content; government as well as service providers are fearful of losing tax dollars and other income; and most importantly, the wide-open freedom of speech and sharing of information has been and always will be a source of worry for many in authority. The mostly open quality of the internet today almost daily fends off attempts to tame it.
Requiring certificates or licenses of internet users may well be a long-term struggle.
My wife lived there a few years and tells me they tax everything. Another fifty years and America will look the same along the same path of the "W" years.
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