Internet freedom facing unprecedented threats - Sergey Brin

Permabear

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Waking-Dreams

Larry Lessig is the man to read on this subject. His last four books all touched on various aspects of cyberspace, intellectual property law and the remix culture.

He hasn't updated his site in ages (for myriad reasons) but Code 2.0 is a good starting point.

http://www.lessig.org/

Silene

The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

It is possible to browse the internet without relying on Google or being tracked by Google. Yet he talks about "the internet" as if it's synonymous with the Google corporation. It sounds kind of propaganda-ish to me.

Later in the article, "walled gardens" are mentioned as "a threat". It seems to mostly be referring to Facebook and the fact that it doesn't allow its profiles to be indexed by Google. I don't see how this constitutes 'a threat to openness' though. Maybe from Google's point of view it does, but not from the users'.

So it seems to me that the main issue people ought to be concerned about is privacy. This is mentioned briefly at the end of the article:

Brin acknowledged that some people were anxious about the amount of their data that was now in the reach of US authorities because it sits on Google's servers. He said the company was periodically forced to hand over data and sometimes prevented by legal restrictions from even notifying users that it had done so.
... "... If we could wave a magic wand and not be subject to US law, that would be great. If we could be in some magical jurisdiction that everyone in the world trusted, that would be great … We're doing it as well as can be done."

Procrastastudy

What ever is done to curtail Internet freedom - will be undone minutes later by someone else. I'm not particularly concerned.

ancapailldorcha

Procrastastudy wrote: »

What ever is done to curtail Internet freedom - will be undone minutes later by someone else. I'm not particularly concerned.

What do you mean?

Tombo2001

Internet freedom......should we care?


or alternatively....



Multi Billionaire Sergey Brin is "worried" about internet freedom. Because when you've got abosulutely nothing else to worry about.........

Procrastastudy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

What do you mean?

The most hated people in the universe are pedophiles - they still manage to use the internet freely using the likes of TOR, Freenet, I2P and various methods I haven't a clue about. If they can manage it other users should find it simple.

The World Wide Web is only a small part of the Internet - other areas can be used to circumvent security. If not there will simply be others invented.

At an OS level - as OSX and Windows tighten up people will simply switch to an alternative.

Chuck Stone

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Internet freedom......should we care?

Yes. Corporations and governments already have far too much power - why the hell should we let them 'capture' the internet?

Multi Billionaire Sergey Brin is "worried" about internet freedom. Because when you've got abosulutely nothing else to worry about.........

Because a rich person can't possibly care about freedom from control?

ancapailldorcha

Procrastastudy wrote: »

The most hated people in the universe are pedophiles - they still manage to use the internet freely using the likes of TOR, Freenet, I2P and various methods I haven't a clue about. If they can manage it other users should find it simple.

The World Wide Web is only a small part of the Internet - other areas can be used to circumvent security. If not there will simply be others invented.

At an OS level - as OSX and Windows tighten up people will simply switch to an alternative.

I see. I've no idea about any of that. I just don't like the idea of the likes of Apple deciding what I should be allowed to use it for.
On another note, has SOPA made any difference at all in everyday internet usage in Ireland at all?

P. Breathnach

I am not convinced that unrestricted freedom on the internet is a good thing, and I think it regrettable that much public discourse takes it as a given. For example, I own the copyright of my own works, and I have produced work that makes money. The anarchic/libertarian position that some people espouse would deny me the opportunity to defend my intellectual property.

Were I a supporter of untrammeled freedom online, I would not want anybody from Google as my advocate.

ancapailldorcha

You have a point but who should decide what's ok and what's not.

Setun

Sergey Brin's comments in the Guardian's week-long feature about the 'open-web' were essentially retaliation for some anti-google stories Facebook paid a marketing company to circulate in 2011. Google advocate the open web because it makes them money - Brin protests that Facebook is a "walled garden" because it means that the information cannot be "free" for consumption by the public, but he is also somewhat occupied by the fact that Google cannot index this information either - the proliferation of private cyberspaces will not help Google's share prices.

Also on a related topic, Naomi Wolf writes in yesterday's Guardian about facial recognition technologies, noting that Facebook are market leaders in this area. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/15/new-totalitarianism-surveillance-technology

BarackPyjama

Personally I have no problems with certain restrictions which protect intellectual copyright. That being said, governments and certain entertainment companies haven't really gone about implementing these restrictions or adapting to the 'internet age' very well. But that's a different argument.

As for Brin's point about 'walled gardens'. Come off it! 1) That's a direct attack on his competitors, who he's even trying to emulate (Google+) so it's hypocritical too and 2) nobody is being forced to use Facebook or any other web service so there's nothing 'scary' about it.

As far as I can see, the open web is alive and well.