Democracy is far from perfect, however it is the best system we came up with so far. In various forms, it has been adopted in many countries around the world. Since the society is better regulated in the real world, Internet users are subjected only to a small portion of the democratic law. World Wide Web makes it not only easier to maintain anonymity to a certain extent, but also spread ideas and share files on foreign servers, where law is different. Martin Lister observed that “the essentially participatory and interactive elements of the pre-web Internet clearly suggest attractive homologies with Hebermas’s description of the idealised public sphere.” A question arises, how ideal is this public sphere?
Having access to the Internet, one can actively participate in discussions on virtually every topic. He can express his feelings and ideas freely and even though a libel and copyright infringement are serious offences, the chances are weak that he is going to be caught. Peer-to-Peer programs and torrent sites are the record companies’ nightmares. They take away a vast fraction of their profits and understate the statistics of records sold. While a person stealing an album from a record store probably won’t get very far, people stealing on the Internet are extremely hard to control. For every closed torrent site or delegalized P2P programme, five new emerge. Is this the idealized kind of democracy Lister talks about? Virtual public sphere resembles rather a Frank Miller’s comic book, Sin City.
Internet is a place where everyone can find something for himself, no matter how bizzare it may be. While analysing the Internet culture, it is essential to look at the both sides of the coin. Culture jamming, though entertaining, is often illegal. A good example is the recent spoof of the MacBook Air commercial. Internet may be perceived as a gigantic country. The bigger the country is, the more difficult it is to control its citizens, while maintaining a sense of democracy. In these terms, Internet is undoubtly a democratic place.
