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Berners-Lee: Web Access Is a 'Human Right'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i'll-buy-that dept.

jbrodkin writes "Two decades after creating the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee says humans have become so reliant on it that access to the Web should now be considered a basic right. In a speech at an MIT symposium, Berners-Lee compared access to the Web with access to water. 'Access to the Web is now a human right,' he said. 'It's possible to live without the Web. It's not possible to live without water. But if you've got water, then the difference between somebody who is connected to the Web and is part of the information society, and someone who (is not) is growing bigger and bigger.'"

1 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Go Tim by Tsingi · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes please. Go.

    I mean, leave. Go away. With all due respect to many great accomplishments, this is ridiculous.

    "Web access should be seen as a right, too, because anyone who lacks Web access will fall behind their more connected peers."

    Anyone who lacks $1,000,000 in their bank account will fall behind their more moneyed peers. Is being rich now a right?

    And what does this mean, to be a right? Free speech as right means the government doesn't have to subsidize my printing press, but if I have a printing press, the government can't tell me what to print or not print.

    Does web access is a right mean the government doesn't have to subsidize my computer, but if I have a computer the government can't prevent my access?

    So if I find an insufficiently secured WiFi access point, the government can't stop my access? I can't be arrest for theft of service?

    I don't get it.

    You are correct in so many ways.

    If you have enough money in the bank, you don't have to pay taxes.

    You have the right to free speech, but don't expect the media to publish anything that does not fit with the corporate agenda. After all, they own the media, and they pay the bills.

    Why should we have an open internet when we can have a society where Joe six pack can sit in front of his tube/puter and have zero access to anything but the propaganda corporations want him to watch. Just like a good monkey.

    I'm so glad I'm not an American because you poor sods actually buy into this shit.