Looong read. Interesting stuff.

[rubank]

This is an entertaining read, worth some thought and consideration.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26612.html

I´m not saying I agree, but that doesn´t mean it´s not interesting. I´m also not saying I don´t agree, it needs digesting.

Comments, anyone?

rubank

[Novdid]

Yes it needs digesting.

And I do agree with him on some of the things he wrote, some good points actually.

[GNEP]

I think it reads like a reality check. A reminder that Neuromancer is fiction.

With regards to the US/Europe thing going on, I think that we are entering a particularly interesting period. As a result of things that are manifestly physical (in the sense of not-really-influenced-by-the-internet) going on in the world, we may be entering a phase of history where the balance of power swings back away from North America. Just as it swung away from Japan 15 or 20 years ago. Fancy a long cold recession anyone?

What relevance to the article does this have? Well, my take is that as a nation is at the height of it's powers, it will attempt to control (to the point of insanity) everything around it. And the attempt of control of the international legal system and the internet by the US is symptomatic of this. So where does this leave the future? Personally, I have built one possible scenario around a stagnation of the US economy and a consumer driven growth period in the recently re-united Europe.

But that is just one scenario amongst many.

The " Information Age " has yet to come to terms with the legalisation (or not) of pure information; the Patent system exists to make technological progressions exploitable and therefore economically justifiable to strive for. But what of the law covering ideas and information that the originators merely want to propagate rather than to lay economic/legal claim to? No legal system (to my knowledge) can yet cope with it.

From things that you wouldn't want your children to see to things that you think everyone in the world should see there is a continuum, in far more than one dimension. Where do we draw the multi-dimensional surface? Who knows?

Who cares? It's late in London and I am far too bored downloading a service pack over 56k...

gnep

[GT98]

Overall from my reading of the article it has a whole lot of Anti-Americaism thrown in there. While I dont agree with the current BS that Hollywood and RIAA are trying to do to (just protect their profits at any costs, instead of expanding their market to make more ), but what do you expect when the number 1 software maker, the top 2 CPU Makers, various network equpiment manufactures are all based out of the USA?

As for Europe pulling together to try to "fight" the the "Americazation" of the Internet...yeah right I'll believe that when I see it. If the past 100 years are any incadation we'll that will never happen. It almost sounds like people complaining about Movies and TV shows coming out the USA...except in the virtual world.

That all being said...well should be interesting how everything plays out.

[Dogbert]

Europe must take back the Web

Was it ever theirs ???

[Dogbert]

I believe that the time has come to speak out in favour of a regulated network; an Internet where each country can set its own rules for how its citizens, companies, courts and government work with and manage those parts of the network that fall within its jurisdiction; an Internet that reflects the diversity of the world's legal, moral and cultural choices

What a heap of BS ! This makes me think about China's internet regulations.

[Dogbert]

Darn, this Bill Thompson is a really stupid A** H***.
He's reminding me of Iran calling the U.S the "big devil".

I suppose he forgot that North America was settled by British and French people that for some reason decided to create themselves a different culture than that of the old continent.

He's also making a propaganda for a 'secure net'

A cyberspace in which each machine is ‘within’ a jurisdiction and where actions can be mapped onto physical space will be very different from today’s Internet.

This guy wants to kill anonymousity so he can in fact control and monitor the net and the people using it a-la big brother better than all those 'Americanised' bills he's fighting.

That guy is a frikkin control freak with some very nasty 'big brother' tendencies.