1. The government is as powerful as it perceives itself to be, since it creates laws. Is there an analog for this in the hierarchy of the Internet?
There is absolutely an analog for this on the Internet. Any company that creates the rules under which to use their site, decides if their users should pay, decides who their users are, decides to be totally private or be a wiki, etc. The same is true for the makers of online games, and sometimes for the participants of them. For most online games, the publishers control how much they charge for the service, the rules of the online universe, etc. In some games, though, like Second Life, the publishers seem to like the idea of its citizens being agnostic. They created the world and then left it up to the users to do whatever they want with it.
2. Why does the author want the Internet to be regulated so much?
I think the reason is simple: to stop hackers, spammers, and trolls.
3. If the Internet can be regulated, who should have jurisdiction over it?
As I said above, the game makers who control online games have jurisdiction over that. Other than that, it’s kind of hard to say. Online porn is illegal in some countries, while in some countries, it’s not. People can be logged onto proxy servers and make it look like they are accessing the Internet from another place. So, for the tech savvy at least, it is difficult for anyone to have jurisdiction over Internet users.
As for Remix, I thought that was pretty interesting. I tend to agree that there needs to be a marriage between shared content and content that makes the creator(s) money. The George Lucas part was probably the best example of something that needs to be fixed. If LucasFilm/Lucas Arts is going to have a website where users can host their content and LucasFilm makes money off it, they can afford to hire someone who decides when a users should get a cut off of some profit. They could use the Youtube model, wherein if a user’s video or other content goes viral, especially if consistently viral with each project, offer them some kind of partnership and profit sharing. Afterall, it would be in LucasFilm’s best interests to support that person to keep them working so that people keep tuning into their site.
toddjambon 