The Internet - drowning in its own waste?

[gekko]

Laws already exist governing the internet. The problem is that since these laws differ so greatly from country to country; and, since it can be so difficult to track down and punish offenders (particularly for "petty" offences), the enforcement and effects of these laws slips. While a universal set of regulations could help dramatically here, I can't conceive of how such a thing could happen. The fact is that what's considered vulgar, trashy, and illegal here is another man's idea of art and free speech.

I think we can all agree that the question is one of balance -- but then, that's true for everything in life. Do you have a set of rules that are balanced and could reasonably be accepted and applied? Do you have even an idea of roughly what form these rules would take?

Note that I'm not disagreeing with you -- I'm genuinely curious to know if you can see even a starting point for governing the beast. Personally, I hold out hope that small communities such as this one can and will continue to provide a "focal point" for the "quality" on the net, but don't expect much to improve overall.

gekko