[huskerlug] How the net turns code into politics
- From: GreyGeek <jkreps@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: HuskerLug <huskerlug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:43:02 -0600
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6325353.stm
A regulated internet does not have to be a closed internet, but the
trend is clearly towards increased control and the loss of the freedoms
which the net has provided thus far. We must understand how this is
happening before we can find ways to resist it.
Today's internet has a technical architecture which expresses certain
liberal values, largely concerned with fair access to the net's
resources, lack of centralised control, support for freedom of speech,
openness to innovation, and resistance to monopoly - either cultural,
economic or technological.
These values are implicit in the way that it links computers and
networks together and moves data around, because they are a consequence
of the way that every computer on the net communicates with other computers.
They are embedded in the network's protocols, the standards which
determine how connections are made and how data is moved.
It is also as easy for an oppressive, illiberal and authoritarian
government to make use of the network as it is for a liberal social
democratic administration, as we see in China, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.
Yet now governments and corporations around the world are making a
concerted effort to dismantle the open internet and replace it with a
regulated and regulable one that will allow them to impose an
"architecture of control".
The freedom of expression that was once available to users of the
Internet Protocol is being stripped away. Our freedom to play,
experiment, share and seek inspiration from the creative works of others
is increasingly restricted *so that large companies can lock our culture
down for their own profit.*
Microsoft's Vista will be used in millions of homes,....They will rarely
notice the limitations,.....But the day will come when they do notice.
[VISTA and its DRM] change the way our computers work and the way they
relate to the network, and those changes could be used to take away our
freedoms.
We need to ensure that the freedoms we currently enjoy online are
preserved as the network evolves, or [the freedrom of the Internet]
could easily end up as minor historical footnote.
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