The Internet Law

A new law, (La Ley de Internet) "the internet law", is going to be approved in March in Spain, by our very appreciated socialist government. The law will make the ISPs liable for the content they transmit, including the "ilegal" files being uploaded and downloaded through peer-to-peer file swapping software, such as Kazaa or Emule. In other words, ISPs are liable for all the mp3 and divx being downloaded every day in Spain. At UC Berkeley, I had a professor who warned us about the control governments can apply to the Internet, very much in the style of Lessig (it was already back in 2001) A year later, at LSE, I had a professor who said socialist governments are the worst thing. Back in Spain, I made a presentation for a graduate course, and my professor (a socialist, of course) said I was too pessimist, and that my views about a perfectly controlled internet with the help of governments was all too biased and irrealistic.
Well, here you have it. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, our beloved socialist government spent 8000 milion euros organising a global sustainable and cultural encounter (to be repeated in four years in Monterrey, my dear Jojo) The same government raised the tickets to the filmoteque from 60 cents to one euro. Fuck, I really wanted to be a socialist, you know.