Declan McCullagh writes that the Europeans still don't understand the internet and quotes several paragraphs from an [unpublished] forthcoming Council of Europe resolution regarding a mandatory 'right of reply' rule for online media.
Although I certainly doubt the net-savvyness of the Council's members, I think they've accidentally stumbled on a good idea.
The proposal states that "Some online publications run by nonprofessionals can be very influential and therefore damaging to the reputation of other people", and therefore a "right of reply" is necessary. Furthermore, the draft states that adding a hyperlink to a rebuttal would suffice.
Although you can't enforce any law that makes a link to a rebuttal mandatory, a trusted third party such as the COE could maintain a server: european.rightofreply.int. I envision a central link database, where you can register a url to a permalink and add a url linking to the rebuttal. It's where you go to get both sides of the story.
Obviously I'd like to see an RSS feed for each rebuttal case, as the system should allow for more opinions to be added.
Ad all thinkable XML-RPC interfaces to the mix and we could wind up with a global trackback system, disguised as a rebuttal system the old world will understand and want. The best part is, it's all taxpayer euros at work.
I'm still a bit unclear on the power of the COE, but Loesewies will know in which direction to point me.
5:10:33 PM
The ScanLog has really brought joy to the masses. Smokin' servers here, and I've only just begun. My new assistant is uncovering boxes that I really had forgotten about, and the stuff is just priceless. More scannage when I get back to my lovely glasstop facsimile mistress at the castle tonite. In late breaking news, KensterJ feels inspired to come out of retirement to add to the mayhem with his MTV memorabilia, and believe me, he's got the goods. I've offered to host for him :) The Wayback machine still knows the Kenster and his art!
4:16:20 PM
FTrain: "Would George Eliot have finished Middlemarch if she'd been pestered by an animated paperclip? Could Shakespeare have coined the words "hobnob," "watchdog," or "lonely" if the spellchecker had marked them with wavy red lines? Would the United States government work better if, rather than amending the constitution, we used "track changes" instead? "
9:47:46 AM
Living in Old Europe really does have it's romantic advantages. Yesterday our crown prince Alexander and princess Maxima announced their pregnancy.
9:41:29 AM
Eleanor Roosevelt: "One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else."
9:30:00 AM
