Jonathan Zittrain On the Future of the Internet

uctpjac writes "Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford and renowned cyberlaw scholar, gave a lecture explaining that the Internet has to be taken out of the hands of the anarchists, the libertarians, and the State, and handed back to self-policing communities of experts. If we don't do this, he believes the Internet will suffer 'self-closure' — the open system will seal itself off when the inability to put its own house in order leads to a take-over by government and business. The article summarizes Zittrain's points and notes, "Forces of organized interests that do not play by the rules, like malware peddlers, identity thieves and spammers are allowing another army of interests — corporate protectionists, often — to demand centralized, authoritarian solutions. This is the future of the Net unless we stop it.'"

Comments

another whiney Brit

[peter303]

The only people more fearful than American news are the British. If I see another "panic" article Slashrot, the odds are its from the UK.

Re:Imaginary Property

[westlake]

Unlike today everyone and their dog won't be able to just put up a page in a days work.

Meaning you might have to put some effort into creating original content for the web instead of just posting - or plagiarizing - the work of others?

It interests me how the Geek lusts to rip off Steamboat Willie. While the real artist moves on and produces a Ratatouille.

Re:Band of experts == communism

[Mr. Slippery]

All socialist politicians pushing variations of plans that have already been tried and failed in other places...

Uh, where are all these "socialist politicians" in the U.S.? Where are any elected officials advocating an economic system based on the exchange of labor, rather than the state-backed control of capital by an class of "owners"?

Proposing a few regulations or a few government services does not make one a socialist. The Palmer raids and McCarthyism did their jobs quite well, destroying the left in the U.S. so thoroughly during the early 20th century that we've been left with two right-wing parties and a population that is so maleducated that many Americans think that the notion that a government might protect and serve citizens by means other than an army and a police force is some sort of radical communist idea.

a medical system that is the envy of the world currently...All socialist politicians pushing variations of plans that have already been tried and failed in other places....

Our healthcare system - or lack thereof - is the laughingstock of the world. The World Health Organization ranks us 37th in health care system performance. Our infant mortality rate is scandalous, our life expectancy mediocre at best for an industrialized nation, our costs out of control as insurers rake in profits, and our large numbers without good access to health care leave us more vulnerable to the outbreak of an epidemic - natural or bioterrorist.

What nonsense

[Eravnrekaree]

This sounds like a load of crap to me. As well, many of the problems he cites, such as with malware, viruses, etc, are Windows problems rather than internet problems. If Windows actually had real security features and didnt make running multi-user such an impossible nightmare we wouldnt have nearly as many problems. The last thing the internet needs to be a closed system. I can see, the openness of the internet as it is now, is working fine, and what problems exist are because of Windows, put out by supposed "experts" at Microsoft.

Re:Band of experts == communism

[Capsaicin]

as we hurtle along at insane speed towards a socialist takeover of a medical system that is the envy of the world currently

Were you being ironic, or do you truly have no idea how other developed nations regard the US health system?

Now I'm not saying the international perception is true, or that you ought to "hurtle along at insane speed towards a socialist takeover," but you should be aware what the perception actually is. Namely and that despite having a few good hospitals accessible to the ultra-rich, the US is universally regarded as the examplar of worst possible practice in regard to the supply of health services. Now it is true that some countries (eg. France) realise that they have set up overly generous (read unsustainable) health systems, but you are simply fooling yourself if you think that even they are looking with envy at the US situation. Rather the debate centres around the question: "how can we reform our health systems to make them more affordable without degenerating into the the mess that the US is in with regard to health."