We in the U.S. like to see the Internet as a space of unparalleled freedom -- A space where every speaker has his or her soapbox and can reach out to new audiences, erasing boundaries of distance. Two items from Berkmanspace today remind me of the limits of this view.

Rebecca MacKinnon has been investigating censorship of Chinese blogs. Today, she reports that Microsoft has taken down a popular Chinese blogger:

Microsoft's MSN Spaces continues to censor its Chinese language blogs, and has become more aggressive and thorough at censorship since I first checked out MSN's censorship system last summer. On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti.

When Microsoft removed the blog, it was lost not just to Chinese readers, but to those outside China whom Michael Anti was able to inform. Rebecca criticizes Microsoft for this removal, even as she wonders about the politics of the censorship. Did MSN react because a Chinese competitor was bringing the controversial hosting to the Chinese government's attention? Would all of MSN Spaces have been blocked to Chinese readers if Microsoft didn't self-police? This incident reminds us how dependent cyber-speech is on the third parties who host it. When they choose to remove it, whether by market whim or government pressure (or a combination of both), we can quickly lose freedoms to speak and read we thought we had -- even in the U.S.

Episode 2 comes from Prof. Charlie Nesson, wondering about the fair use or copyright status of posting a New Republic article for his evidence class. Offline, were he to hand out copies as students filed into the classroom, this would rate as clear fair use: "teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)." Online, however, when Prof. Nesson wants to share this teaching with the world and the technology enables him to do it, the copyright law might get in the way. If the New Republic were to send a DMCA takedown notice claiming copyright infringement, would Harvard defend the posting or take it down "expeditiously" to preserve their copyright safe-harbor? Too many ISPs take down without asking questions.