Internet and its place in the world:

It could be one of the most important cases of the 21st century, influential in the tradition of Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Gibbons v. Ogden. Or it could be nothing more than a bump in the road, never amounting to anything more than a cash settlement and a promise to be better.

What case am I referring to? The AFP news wire company is suing Google for violating copyrights through the google service Google News.

Potential significance:
This case could bring to light several issues relating to the internet as it relates to media, past, present and future. Through this situation we may indeed see traditional media take on the front-runner of what I think can be comfortably called the new media. That is, news agencies of the 20th century fighting against the rising number of purely digital, automated, customizable media portals of the burgeoning 21st century. The implications of this could be far reaching and has potential to be the foundation of the interaction between media, technology and government in the Information Age (or Digital Age, or Internet Age, call it what you will).

Questions that might be raised by such a court battle include (but are certainly not limited to): how do copyright laws apply to intellectual property via the internet? Is the internet a public venue, or a doorway to a vast number of private spaces? What is the extent of information ownership once it is entered on the web? Where is the line between content portals and actual services or content creators?

Any answers to these questions may prove to be the foundation for the way we interact with the internet and the ways in which media is distributed via digital and electronic medium. Only time will tell, and I for one am counting the seconds...

As an intersting extra, and for those who enjoy a little taste of 'what if' scenarios, check out the EPIC 2014 internet video. After reading abuot the AFP suit, I found it to be a most topical and entertaining diversion.

~JDS