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Liberal Machines

Griffith University

This article considers the ways we may regard the new public computer networks as "liberal machines." Although libertarian expectations of the Internet's potential as a technology of freedom are likely to be disappointed, digital communications networks remain the source of powerful but unrealized aspirations on the part of governments, "netizens," and international agencies. The tasks we assign to liberal government may be more complex in the new media environment, but they have not disappeared. New technologies are perceived as creating new problems for governments and citizens, but through the prism of information policy these same technologies are also seen as offering unprecedented new capacities for redressing perceived deficiencies in Western cultural and political communities. This article discusses the role of governments and international bodies in two key fields of information policy: the management of illegal or harmful material and the adaptation of intellectual property rights to digital networks.

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