Increased levels of regulation, policing and taxes are inevitable on The Internet. Whilst The Internet was used by cutting edge technophiles, it was like the wild-west, a new area to be explored free from the encumbrances of regulation. But once everyone gets on board then we get two groups joining in:
1. criminals
2. children and vulnerable citizens
If we have criminals then we need policing, identification and the authority to shut them down. Email spamming, identity theft and fraud can't be allowed to go unchallenged. All the designs from one of our sites were recently copied. The copyright infringer was based in America and we had to personally chase them down, using several agencies. There was no standard process to apply to have their server disconnected by their ISP. Clearly any such process would need to be carefully monitored and controlled, but it should exist.
With vulnerable people using The Internet this changes the game too. Whilst as a savvy user you may say "I will recognize a scam or phishing attempt; don't erode my freedom of speech with regulations, controls and identity tracking", can you be sure your parents and grandparents would be safe? Whilst a mature user may say, "I'll choose what pornography to view", do you want your children to have the same choice?
And finally, as more commercial transactions go through the web, governments will be attracted to levy VAT taxes. Why should online transactions not be taxed whilst off-line ones are?
It will all have to happen; tax, regulation and policing. Better to be involved with a debate about how to do it, than arguing against it. The same rules and regulations we need to run a civil offline society, will also be needed online to protect everyone from criminals and safeguard the vulnerable and young.
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