What the F@ck is Netopia Smoking???

From http://inq7.net today (Nov. 1, 2005) InfoTech Section:
Internet café chain owner Netopia is urging the government to create a censorship body to monitor data flowing through the local Internet infrastructure.
Complete news item can be found here: http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=55102

What the heck are they thinking? One of the great things about the internet is its lack of control (which is actually a two-edged sword but that's a different blog entry altogether). If they start "regulating" the content of the 'net, what will stop governments from gagging other contents that does not follow their ideology? Where will the news-hungry get their news as they happen? If this comes through, what will stop governments to eavesdrop on our instant messaging or even VOIP conversations?

Netopia's goal seems lofty but it will start a bad precedent which may ultimately result in a crippled cyberspace. Besides, one can't help but think that they simply want a government position since the second paragraph of the news item mentions how they are proposing an MTRCB-like body to "regulate" the flow of information through the internet.

What Netopia needs to do is try to clean their own backyards first. Let them install a net filter on their infrastructure and see how their own customers react to their hare-brained proposal.


Netopia's website is at http://www.netopia.ph