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Pirate Bay Founder: We've Lost the Internet, It's All About Damage Control Now (thenextweb.com)
Mar Masson Maack reports via The Next Web: At its inception, the internet was a beautifully idealistic and equal place. But the world sucks and we've continuously made it more and more centralized, taking power away from users and handing it over to big companies. And the worst thing is that we can't fix it -- we can only make it slightly less awful. That was pretty much the core of Pirate Bay's co-founder, Peter Sunde's talk at tech festival Brain Bar Budapest. TNW sat down with the pessimistic activist and controversial figure to discuss how screwed we actually are when it comes to decentralizing the internet.
In Sunde's opinion, people focus too much on what might happen, instead of what is happening. He often gets questions about how a digitally bleak future could look like, but the truth is that we're living it: "Everything has gone wrong. That's the thing, it's not about what will happen in the future it's about what's going on right now. We've centralized all of our data to a guy called Mark Zuckerberg, who's basically the biggest dictator in the world as he wasn't elected by anyone. Trump is basically in control over this data that Zuckerberg has, so I think we're already there. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and I don't think there's a way for us to stop it." One of the most important things to realize is that the problem isn't a technological one. "The internet was made to be decentralized," says Sunde, "but we keep centralizing everything on top of the internet."
In Sunde's opinion, people focus too much on what might happen, instead of what is happening. He often gets questions about how a digitally bleak future could look like, but the truth is that we're living it: "Everything has gone wrong. That's the thing, it's not about what will happen in the future it's about what's going on right now. We've centralized all of our data to a guy called Mark Zuckerberg, who's basically the biggest dictator in the world as he wasn't elected by anyone. Trump is basically in control over this data that Zuckerberg has, so I think we're already there. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and I don't think there's a way for us to stop it." One of the most important things to realize is that the problem isn't a technological one. "The internet was made to be decentralized," says Sunde, "but we keep centralizing everything on top of the internet."
Whenever something goes main stream, its only a matter of time until its cheap and ruined.
Seriously, I've distrusted Facebook from the very start, and never will trust it. Given that Zuckerberg is on record as saying that anyone who trusts him is a fool, I'm going to work accordingly. I've got better things to do with my life then spend it tethered to bullshit.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
Look, I've taken a fair amount of copyrighted content down the TPB myself.
There's no way in hell I'd have paid for most of it, so for the producers to cry that it's "lost revenue" is bullshit - if I'd even decided it was worth the trouble I'd have waited for Netflix or Hulu or Netflix DVD and watched it.
Further, I think the draconian copyright laws, and copyright ad eternium is ridiculous and frankly unconstitutional.
But for TPB to cry "we've lost the internet" is very much like Blackbeard crying "I've lost my freedom of the seas!" - true as far as it goes, but let's understand that your PRIME activity was copying crap that was for sale and essentially giving it away for free without authorization. You're not the "good guys" here.
-Styopa
"Trump is basically in control over this data that Zuckerberg has, so I think we're already there." is this guy serious.. does anyone remember what FB did during the election? They banned so many right leaning political people and they skewed the feed results so you couldn't see real news. Facebook is horrific and everyone should quit them.. but.. come on man put the crack pipe down.. no social media company is working with trump in any way..
My data is not centralized, it is on my computer and nowhere else.
This statement is a contradiction. If all your data is in one place then it's centralized, be it facebook or your own computer.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
That's not 'insightful', that's autistic. The word "centralized" implies a single location for the data of all people, under the control of a single,powerful entity. His own data, on his own computer, is separate from the data of all the other people, and is therefore not centralized.
Anyway, what did mr. Sunde do himself to keep the internet decentralized? Did he, perhaps, build a protocol to have decentralized distribution of .torrent files (which would have been easy enough)? Nope, he set up a single, centralized webserver where he could gain ad revenue. From stealing other people's work, no less.
Right. We are just seeing the inevitable consequence of the Eternal September.
There is a big difference: Choice.
Free email service were provided by many companies, and ISPs also often had email service as part of the subscription. On top of that you could create your own or buy access to an email service if you wanted. And best of all? Everything worked together, because the communication protocols were public and free.
Facebook is one company. You have to use Facebook to interface with all the goings on, because almost everyone else is using their closed (but free) platform.
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head