Is Big Business Killing the Net

Bill Thompson

Of course it is• Killing one way of building a public

network• The TCP/IP network• The one I love

Thank you suckers• We’d be nowhere without business• In 1990 the academic net had run

out of steam– Few hundred thousand users– File transfer, email, USENET

• Not clear the Internet -> Information Superhighway

Other Networks• Value Added Network Services

– Telcos and X.25

• Open Systems Interconnection– OSI– Seven layer model

• TCP/IP not seen as a player

The ISPs• Greed of the commercial ISPs

– Leased lines– Routers– Class C address– Money!

• Dialup providers– Quick and dirty TCP/IP– Winsock and K9Q

The Web• Tim Berners-Lee 1989

– Academic hypertext– Nobody wanted it – not even the

physicists

• Eric Bina/Marc Andreesen 1993– Mosaic– <IMG> tag

Commercialisation• From 1995

– The Net was viable and global– Stupidity, greed and technical illiteracy of

the venture capital community– Duplicitousness of banks and finance

houses

• All paid for the Internet infrastructure– Say thankyou to the suckers– Say thankyou to Gilder and Negroponte

All not perfect• Not everything is sorted

– Major threats to net’s growth– Internal contradictions ripping it apart

• The Net needs to reinvent itself– A bit like capitalism

IP vs IP• Net architecture embodies liberal

values– No central control– Support freedom of speech– Open to innovation– Resistant to monopoly

• End to end– About what programs can do– Not an abstract principle

No guarantees• Today’s Net is very porous• US culture is aggressive• The Net cannot resist• Californian ideology dominates• Not the real problem:

– The real problem is that companies and governments want to take away the open net

Easy to do• What programmers build

programmers can take away• The owners of the Net want more

control• The operation of IP is against the

interests of the owners of Intellectual Property

• The network is being redesigned– Trusted processors, signed code, DRM

Trusting trust• Trusted computing can be good or bad

– The current crowd cannot be trusted

• They are making technologies and laws to control the Net

• They want to be in charge• The clampdown is coming• The commons is being enclosed and

destroyed• This is a tragedy for all who value

public space

Time to fight back• The copyright bargain must be restated• Moral rights can be asserted• Total control over use is unacceptable• Seize back the means of reproduction• Fight for fair use: DMCA and EUCD must

go• Work with the IT industry

– Encourage it to lobby and fight the RIAA

Future creativity• If IT wins over Hollywood what

happens?– Don’t know– Will we miss Schwarzenegger, Clancy

or Robbie Williams? I don’t think so

• We can have trusted systems without total copyright control– And we will benefit

More than ©• Freedom is not just the freedom to rip• Need freedom of expression

– As much online as in real life

• Not an unregulated Net• Not a differently regulated Net• An appropriately regulated Net

– Serve the needs of the many not the few– Not just for cyberlibertarians and

netheads

A regulated Network• Not an online police state• Under democratic control

– So resist opression– Fight unust laws like USA PATRIOT– Retain belief in government

Don’t reify• Too easy to see Network as a

separate universe– It is just a new part of this world

• Too easy to ascribe essential qualities to Net– There are none– It is what we make it– I agree with Lessig

• The Net is a place not a channel– It is not a separate space

A new word• The Internet started 1/1/83• Perhaps it should end 1/1/03• Call it something new• s/Internet/????/gi• What?

– Spew? Metaverse?– Big Brother?– Bentham’s Panopticon?– The Matrix?

Working for the Clampdown

• The new network will be regulable• Current systems don’t allow it

– We like this– It will disappear by 2007– People will choose the ‘safe’ net

• It will be breakable– Ross with an electron microscope– NTK to publicise new toys and hacks

• Most people will not want or need to break it– Do not be arrogant and dismiss these people

Complete Control• Who runs the regulated network?

– Corporations or governments?

• P2P shows how bad it can be– A real revolution– A return to real computing– An excellent opportunity

• Blown by greed and stupidity– The unregulated market can’t work

The Hidden City• There is hope. It lies with the coders

– Like the diggers– Like Neo without leather coat and guns

(except Raymond,natch)– Shape the land to serve the interests

of the people

• Need to resist government– Not all governments are good– Not all governments are wise and

sensible

Resistance• Need space for activism• Need to subvert control systems• Need to resist bad law• Need to fight the system• Need to do illegal and unethical

stuff– Otherwise we cannot make the world

better

The City• The Net is a city

– Needs schools, offices, shops– Needs parks and CCTV-patrolled

areas

• Needs downtown too– Seedy dives– Places to buy recreational drugs– Meeting places to foment revolution– Hotel rooms by the hour

Making it work• Trusted networks• Linux Virtual Machine

– Signed code– Linux File System registered type

• Run a kernel– Communicate with others over IPv4

OVER SSH or somesuch

• A virtual Internet on top of the Matrix

And Finally• Time to embrace the regulated network• Exert democratic control

– Or leave it to the corporations

• The new net will not be a nice place– Unless we make it a nice place

• We can see the future– It is time to shape it and ensure that

governments can run it – for all our interests

• Surely that is worth fighting for.