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Do We Need a New Internet?
Richard.Tao and a number of other readers sent in a NYTimes piece by John Markoff asking whether the Internet is so broken it needs to be replaced. "...[T]here is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over. What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a 'gated community' where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety. Today that is already the case for many corporate and government Internet users. As a new and more secure network becomes widely adopted, the current Internet might end up as the bad neighborhood of cyberspace. You would enter at your own risk and keep an eye over your shoulder while you were there." A less alarmist reaction to the question was blogged by David Akin: "If you build a new Internet and you want me to get a license to drive on it, sorry. I'm hanging out here in v.1."
and in fact, once again, anonymity in communication enjoys particular protection by the United States Constitution.
If "they" came up with a security model that required giving up privacy, then "we" would just come up with another that did not. There is no technical reason that privacy cannot be maintained... if anything, better than it is now.
If that's what they decided they were going to do, then they can go fuck themselves in their fake-assed Pleasantville/Stepford version of cyberspace 'cause I'M NOT PLAYING ALONG WITH IT. What they're suggesting is the absolute antithesis of Net Neutrality!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Have we forgotten that Markoff's an idiot?