Should governments and megacorps license internet use?

[The Newswire]

How comically are we living in a dark dystopian cyperpunk future, where the Microsoft corporation wants to have the power of a nation state and it gives people job titles involving the expression Trustworthy Computing? I mean, for fuck's sake. (I hope I don't lose my internet license for cussing.) Allow me to explain what I am referring to regarding a license to use the internet.

I love trade shows. Maybe for the educational value, maybe for the windows into other worlds, maybe for the pleasures of meetings of tribes. When I say I love trade shows, I mean including those for trades I am at most tangentially involved in. That said, apparently there are some creepy-ass tradeshows out there, where I would not like the keynote speeches or seminars one bit. Specifically, I am thinking I would want to be throwing the free doughnuts at the speakers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the ISSE or Information Security Solutions Europe computer security conference in Berlin, Germany.

In particular, Microsoft execs at these conferences have been pushing an agenda to force everyone to have a license to use the internet. Yes, you read that correctly. This week, at ISSE, Scott Charney, Microsoft brass with the dubious title of "vice president of Trustworthy Computing", suggested, "If a device is known to be a danger to the internet, the user should be notified and the device should be cleaned before it is allowed unfettered access to the internet, minimising the risk of the infected device contaminating other devices." At WEF, Craig Mundie, Microsoft brass with the somewhat less dubious title of chief research and strategy officer, said "We need a kind of World Health Organization for the Internet. If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive and you have to have insurance."

Don't get me wrong. The internet is a cesspool in many ways. I am distressed by the ability of those with competitive business interests to come and sow discord without having to sign their real names. I am tired of having to deal with companies who like to harvest my words and/or images and profit from them, without giving me so much as a credit shoutout. I'd like to be able to look at sites I have to DMCA without catching malware. As Dave Chapelle says, "if the internet was a real place, it would be disgusting and intolerable." However, as Benjamin Franklin said, "they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."



I would appeal to my elected representatives with my wish not to live enslaved in a nanny state. To a corporation where my vote takes the form of buying their products, I implore Microsoft not to force me to buy computers and software from annoying Apple. Apple lists selling points like that Macs don't get PC viruses. (Duh!) The Apple marketing idiocy makes my teeth itch, but restricting freedom of speech on the internet is just a bit more serious.

Full disclosure: I have been a Microsoft booster in the past and Microsoft is one of our advertisers. Most sites owned and/or operated by Blue Blood are created and maintained on Microsoft machines.

Read the full article

[Raza]

"Information Security Solutions" is another nice one.

'Not much to add, really, 'cept that it's kind of funny how M$ in particular - the most historically insecure software company out there, despite all their power - thinks security needs a structurally new angle. They are always the ones with the problem.

[Mr Karl]

security is big business......besides in just the plain old world, never mind the internet people in general are getting duller and less aware of thier surroundings.......people need safety and security all interlocked together so that nothing really moves anymore.....heheheh

I think that whoever provides the service can do whatever they want with it.....we as consumers can choose to buy it or not...or make our own

[Ibeus]

I think that whoever provides the service can do whatever they want with it.....we as consumers can choose to buy it or not...or make our own

I agree with this. It would be much easier to design a new internet than say enact change in the real world. I'm not saying that companies controlling the internet is a good idea, but maybe it will inspire something really innovative.

[Morning Glory]

Companies controlling the internet is bad.

So is government controlling the internet.

In fact, any large group of people trying to control anything should probably be avoided.

a brief history lesson:

In old times all major commerce was shipped in things called Ships. That's where the word comes from.

Some people decided to seize control of the ships and put them toward their own use, instead of the use of the companies and governments that controlled them. These people were called Pirates.

A while later they realized that the economy was imaginary and they did away with manual transport and decided to conduct business using invisible magic. They sent the magic through telephone wire cables, but by the time they thought to put them under control they were already everywhere and everyone had easy access to them and they were obsolete.

Next they figured out how to send the magic directly through the air and they called it radio. Because it was just floating around in the air people were able to get ahold of it and put it toward their own use, instead of the use of the companies and governments that controlled it. It was pirate radio.

Next they were able to send pictures into boxes. They didn't bother trying to control it, they gave it away for free because they already knew that people could hijack air magic. But they got dumb again and changed their mind and thought they were so smart by sending the magic back by wire cable again, which hadn't been pirated. Nope, people just plugged into the wires and pirated cable.

They were mad because everything they made from then on kept getting pirated: cassettes, video tapes, CDs, DVDs, computer software, MP3s...

They thought they had finally outsmarted the pirates for good because they were able to keep them from hijacking the wire cables that ran the internet. But they were dumb and forgot again and they decided to broadcast the internet through the radio. Can you guess what happens next?

[Raza]

Yarr! Hooray f'r pirates!

[Mr Karl]

yeah, pirating is good.......only way to stop pirating is if people stop making stuff to be pirated.

but, the world wouldn't be so bad with everything licensed......I'd like to see a strict dress code worldwide too with licenses to be bought so people can wear a color besides black.....everything would be legal but doing something without a license is a capitol offence........so many possibilites for this old world

[Raza]

yeah, pirating is good.......only way to stop pirating is if people stop making stuff to be pirated.

Making stuff without copyrighting it also works p. well, I'm told.

but, the world wouldn't be so bad with everything licensed......I'd like to see a strict dress code worldwide too with licenses to be bought so people can wear a color besides black.....everything would be legal but doing something without a license is a capitol offence........so many possibilites for this old world

This would have been perfectly likely, if IP had been invented earlier on the path of human discovery. F'you can patent a part of the human genome that you map for medicinal purposes, physicists could've done the same for colors whose wavelengths they uncovered.

Imagine the dominance of the first stone age tribe to discover (and consequently licence the use of) fire! We'd still be dead or paying tributes.

[Mr Karl]

fire's not licensed?I sort of think that in some strange sort of way the use of it is.........if it weren't more people would be equiped to start one.