The recent battles in the U.S. over the SOPA, PIPA, and other internet regulations only presage a much larger global fight about controlling the internet. This is a fight filled with many competing interest groups many of which may be completely uninterested in compromise. The challenge of controlling the internet is a nightmare not only for building consensus but also for effectively enforcing any consensus-based regulation. Reading this article made me realize how much is truly in flux in terms of how the internet is organized and accessed, and this realization is very concerning for anyone who values privacy and free speech.
"World War 3.0" by Michael Joseph Gross
Published in Vanity Fair, May 2012
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/internet-regulation-war-sopa-pipa-defcon-hacking
Eric
What do you want to bet the people mentioned at the end aren't listened to and decisions are made based on short terms interest/money?
ReplyDeleteSo that link was messed up. Even though it initially displayed longer on my screen, it is actually a much longer and more detailed article: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/internet-regulation-war-sopa-pipa-defcon-hacking
ReplyDeleteJust updated the page. And I do think that the short term financial interests will win out, but the interesting thing here, too, is that those interests could be in conflict with state interests. That leads to some interesting situations and also creates all sorts of potential security interests for individuals, states, and corporations.
Being a part of the world wide web is scary. That is basically the them of all the articles I'll post this week.
Eric