These are all valid points and I agree with the source. It seems to me, however, that those who do not invent the technology come off best. Countries that adopt later produce better solutions, having learnt from the mistakes other countries have made.
Quite often the country in which an idea is first implemented has many flaws in their product. Thus ulimitately the latter developers produce much better results and corner the market. The US has a chance to do this now with their mobile telephony and wireless communications.
I guess it just depends if they want to be the best bad enough.
The way things are going at the moment companies have a lot greater power than the governments themselves. It's easy to see what the future could be like if things continue down this path. At the moment the larger network providers have the ability to trace users if they so wish. Placing a packet sniffer on a link which connects to a peering point such as MAE-EAST or LINX would be very simple for them.
To my mind, I feel a lot more confident of a governmental agency such as MI5 having this ability, to protect, than just having companies who have no responsiblity to any government with that ability. At least with government agencies we elect them into power (in most countries) and they are responsible to us, the people.
Slashdot Mirror
These are all valid points and I agree with the source. It seems to me, however, that those who do not invent the technology come off best. Countries that adopt later produce better solutions, having learnt from the mistakes other countries have made.
Quite often the country in which an idea is first implemented has many flaws in their product. Thus ulimitately the latter developers produce much better results and corner the market. The US has a chance to do this now with their mobile telephony and wireless communications.
I guess it just depends if they want to be the best bad enough.
Jonathan
The way things are going at the moment companies have a lot greater power than the governments themselves. It's easy to see what the future could be like if things continue down this path. At the moment the larger network providers have the ability to trace users if they so wish. Placing a packet sniffer on a link which connects to a peering point such as MAE-EAST or LINX would be very simple for them.
To my mind, I feel a lot more confident of a governmental agency such as MI5 having this ability, to protect, than just having companies who have no responsiblity to any government with that ability. At least with government agencies we elect them into power (in most countries) and they are responsible to us, the people.