What is the Future of the Internet?
THE FUTURE
Law Professor: Counter Terrorism Czar Told Me There Is Going To Be An i-9/11 And An i-Patriot Act. Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig details government plans to overhaul and restrict the Internet.
During a group panel segment titled "2018: Life on the Net", Lessig stated:
There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn't necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You've got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.
The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.
Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said "of course there is".
Hear Lawrence Lessig talk about the new "patriot act" that the government has ready and will be applied to the Internet following a 911 type event affecting the web: an "iPatriot Act.
Watch Lessig reveal the details at 4.30 into thefollowing video:
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Lessig is the founder of Stanford Law School's Center
for Internet and Society. He is founding board member of
Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best
known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright,
trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology
applications.
The Patriot Act, as well as its lesser known follow
up the Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known as USA
Patriot Act II, have been universally decried by civil libertarians
and Constitutional scholars from across the political spectrum.
They have stripped back basic rights and handed what have been
described by even the most moderate critics as "dictatorial
control" over to the president and the federal government.
Many believed that the legislation was a response
to the attacks of 9/11, but the reality was that the Patriot Act
was prepared way in advance of 9/11 and it sat dormant, awaiting
an event to justify its implementation.
In the days after the attacks it was passed in the
House by a majority of 357 to 66. It passed the Senate by 98 to
1. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) told the Washington Times that
no member of Congress was even allowed to read the legislation.
Now we discover that exactly the same freedom restricting
legislation has already been prepared for the cyber world.
An i-9/11, as described by Lawrence Lessig, would
provide the perfect pretext to implement such restrictions in
one swift motion, as well as provide the justification for relegating
and eliminating specific content and information on the web.
Such an event could come in the form of a major
viral attack, the hacking of a major city's security or transport
systems, or some other vital systems, or a combination of all
of these things. Considering the amount of unanswered questions
regarding 9/11 and all the indications that it was a covert false
flag operation, it isn't hard to imagine such an event being played
out in the cyber world.
However, regardless of any i-9/11 or i-Patriot Act,
there is already a coordinated effort to stem the reach and influence
of the internet. Read More
BIG BROTHER - NO PRIVACY
Despite all of our high-tech stuff, some basic truths remain unchanged. Control over the access to information, whether on scrolls, in books, or flashing onto computer screens, is power. And those persons and organizations who would restrict such access are always the first to realize and manipulate this fact -- to the detriment of society at large. This has been true all throughout human history, and our fancy machines and networks have not made us immune to the same dark traps.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM GOOGLE
Reading
- Google Knol: The World's Editor-in-Chief & Omni-Publisher? Can you say "Dis-intermediation?"
- What 3Q earnings tell us about Google-Yahoo Antitrust Review; GOOG-YHOO earn ~100% of profits
- FTC could protect privacy by enforcing fair representation laws & conflict disclosures
- More on Google as biggest threat to people's privacy
- The future we feared in 1973 is the reality of 2008. Compare Google to the concerns that were expressed way, way back in the 1973 HEW report on Privacy and theconcerns that went into the rather toothless US Privacy Act of 1974.
- Web Firms Tell Congress They Track Behavior Without Consent Google admitted to tracking online behavior of its users. "Our responsibility is to make sure that we create a law that, regardless of the technology, includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information."
The Internet is Growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.36% of Internet users are now in Asia and 24% are in Europe. Only 23% of users are in North America, where it all started in 1969 when two computers -- one in Los Angeles, the other in Palo Alto -- were networked together. It took 36 years for the Internet to get its first billion users. The second billion will probably be added by 2015; most of these new users will be in Asia. The third billion will be harder, and might not be reached until 2040. Now, learn a little about something called bandwidth.
FUTURE 2016
The Computer Age Arrives, civilization as we've known it is over.
- "Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new world".
- The Future of Security
- F*ck Big Media: Rolling Your Own Network
NET NEUTRALITY
AT&T was saying that their DSL superiority made bandwidth caps unnecessary, to wit:
Some AT&T customers use disproportionately high amounts of Internet capacity, "but we figure that's why they buy the service," said Michael Coe, a spokesman for the company. -- September 7, 2007 - Washington Post
"Much of the talk re caps has less to do with traffic management and maybe more to do with competing with TV delivered via the net. Caps structured "correctly" will surcharge TV delivery over the net so much as to make it non competative with the cable (and fios} TV delivery systems. So we will continue with hundreds of channels and nothing to watch." ~ djf
The Internet And The Neutrality Question -- A Conversation With David Farber - This video interview was produced as part of the 37th KMB Conference, March 8, 9, &10, 2006 held at St. Pete's Beach FL.
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- Dave Hughes, CEO, OldColo.com
- Ed Felten, Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, Princeton University
- Dewayne Hendricks, CEODandin Group
- David Isenberg, PrincipalIsen.com
- Jonathan Krim, Director of Strategic Initiatives, WashingtonPost.com
- Bruce Kushnick, ChairmanTeletruth
- Om Malik, Senior WriterBusiness 2.0.
- Chairman Michael Powell, Former FCC Chairman
- Doc Searls, Senior EditorLinux Journal
- Gigi Sohn, PresidentPublic Knowledge
- Brad Templeton, ChairmanElectronic Frontier Foundation
- David Weinberger, FellowBerkman Center for Internet & Society
- NET NEUTRALITY EXPLAINED : Here's a little video on Net Neutrality from Public Knowledge. Bill was Killed in committee but apparently it's been resurrected / reintroduced. PR statement and The actual bill
- How the War on Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know Prepared by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
- "Who Controls the Internet?" The Internet began as a digital Wild West, lawless and immune from market or government control. Columbia law professor Tim Wu explains not only how important national borders have proven to be, but also why policing them might not be so bad. mp3: <> Transcript
Telcos hurting national interest says Vint Cerf
We have too many Telcos, Verisigns, and Googles. What we need are not so many rules that say "no" but more rules that say "yes" to new investment by new competitors. We need to open the doors so that new players will provide alternatives to the existing telco and cable TV local copper.
Finally! an Energy Policy the world can get behind and a new business model to replace the TELCO's dead industry model.
see: Howard Bloom founder of the Space Development Steering Committee and Member Of The Board Of Governors of the National Space Society. Space Based Solar Power
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"Power electrons are the mother's milk of the information age and power distribution is a lot more fragile than we imagine," said Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future. Carry spare batteries."



