Why we need an internet bill of rights

A discussion on freedom and regulation always comes down to coordination of power/influence in order to attain optimal morality of a system. Let me illustrated this with an economic market example.

Given the accumulation of power in central nodes in an economic market, the need for counterbalancing mechanisms, such as democracy become bigger. On the economic market one dollar is one vote and the central nodes (big companies) represent many votes. Democracy on the other hand, balances the market by giving each individual one vote and having the power to limit the set of behaviors in the economc market. The political ideas on what is good and wrong counterbalance the powerful companies behaviors by limiting their freedom. The freedom of companies to form laborcontracts with children for example has been restricted in the western world, even though both companies and children were willing to form these workrelations. The moral view that childlabor is wrong resulted in political laws limiting possible behaviour in the economic market. In this view a discussions on opening economic markets mean a shift of power from votes to dollars. This might be good when the restrictions imposed upon markets reduce the functioning (allowed behaviours) of a market too much. So in economic markets politics forms a mechanism which balances powers and coordinates morality and freedoms.

Given the way the web nowadays shifts towards fewer, increasingly more powerfull centres (Google, Facebook), the need for a counterbalancing mechanism becomes clearer. In the normal world politics exist where the power of money is controled by voters. On the web we also would like to limit the set of possible behaviors (phishing, spam). We nowadays use national politics to do so, but given the global nature of the web this hardly suffices. A better coordinationmechanism is needed by which we nettizens can control unwanted behavior of powerful parties on the web. We need a way to reach a common moral ground restricting the behavior of everybody, including the powerful players. The voting with your feet principle is just not good enough (if people don't like googles policy in China, they still keep using their gmail/search). Another coordination mechanism is needed. I hope the e-G8 will adress these kinds of topics.