The move is slated by Wired as "an opportunity for a new global bureaucracy" and, as regular readers will be well aware, I'm strongly opposed to such things -- but in this case I believe he has the germ of a good idea.

Readers Say (updated hourly) Internet Passports... - Peter Cyber Passport... - Stan online law? absolutely not!... - Daniel Have Your Say

As has been proven time and time again by various cases involving pornography, defamation, trademarks and other issues, the Net is plagued by the fact that it has no physical location and therefore is not under the control of any single set of laws.

What's legal in one country may be illegal in another -- but if a US law is broken by someone accessing the Net in the UK -- has a crime really been committed?

I've long advocated the creation of a separate jurisdiction for cyberspace that would allow all online activities to be controlled by a single consistent set of laws. These laws would in effect for a treaty by which other countries would agree to enforce, or at least aide the enforcement of them with a central (cyberspace) authority.

Well hell -- why don't we just declare cyberspace to be a virtual country?

Whenever you log on to the Net, you will in effect be visiting that country and thus you'll be bound by its laws.

For example -- if unsolicited email marketing is made illegal in cyberspace then, no matter where you access the Net from, if you spam then you will have broken the law. The cyberspace authorities would have the right to issue a fine or other penalty that would (under the terms of the international treaty) be enforced by the local authorities of the country in which you live.

At this stage there would be little conflict between local and cyberspace laws concerning the Internet -- since there are so few countries which have any real Net-specific legislation anyway. Besides which -- people will just have to accept that they are in effect in a different country when online.

Just as foreigners have to remember that chewing gum in Singapore is illegal and carries a stiff fine -- visitors to cyberspace will have to agree to abide by the laws of that jurisdiction while online.

Now for the downside: Just as we all need a valid passport to travel from one country to another, the chances are that to be effective and easily policed, the creation of "cyberspace" would also require that anyone wanting to use the Net have a valid cyberspace passport.

This electronic document would uniquely identify them while they were online -- thus allowing crimes to be traced to the perpetrator and minimising the cost of enforcement.

Sounds like huge reduction in online privacy right? Maybe so -- but then again, you can't enter most foreign countries without disclosing a lot of private information -- and the way our own lawmakers are headed we're going to lose a lot more than just our privacy if the anti-hacking bill currently under consideration is enacted in its current form.

So, what do YOU think? Should we create an entirely new virtual country to represent the online world?

Would the price be too high or would it be the simplest and most sensible way to deal with the increasing number of problems that are appearing as the Net matures and becomes an integral part of our business and recreation?

The Weekly Trickles Out
This week's edition of the Weekly has started trickling out. It will probably take a day or so before they're all sent but they're on their way.

As always, your feedback is welcomed and...

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