An interesting reflection by RoboJiannis on Torrentspy and evidence, Apple and ChangeSecret and Yahoo!, Baidu, China and infringement. Is this really all about putting the Web (the Net) under control? (ChangeMod (abbreviated from change mode) appears to be a play on words on the shell command in Unix and Unix-like environments known as Chmod)

Jiannis’ piece quotes some snippets from Barlow’s manifesto- the critical Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace written in 1996…

Snippets from the Manifesto

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather….

…Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here….

…In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media…

…We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.

John Perry Barlow, of Davos, Switzerland, penned this manifesto on February 8, 1996, A declaration of the independence of cyberspace. Barlow is also known as a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization which promotes freedom of expression in digital media where he now serves as its Vice Chairman.

Do you recall the words of the declaration of the independence of cyberspace- written over a decade ago? That is a long time in the computing era. (I have made some edits made for clarity based on today’s ChangeMode feedback post and comments. This shows that I am suffering from dementia perhaps…

(While we are at it I would love to find a definitive source on the lost art of netiquette.)

The Triad of Developments

The Changemod.com piece goes on to recap a triad of disturbing developments:

TorrentSpy, a Peer-to-Peer Network, according to the verdict of a California judge has violated copyrights owned by the MPAA. TorrentSpy was also found guilty of destroying evidence e.g. example deleting logs of user IP adresses. In the Blogosphere- recall the debate over Apple getting the Think Secret blog shut down- although the settlement was “amicable”. A quick stop to China which found Yahoo! guilty of copyright infringement. The rub is that China wasn’t actually serving up any pirated music. They were simply engaged in “deep linking.”

Further Reading

Chris Marshall of Gadgetell’s Torrent Spy and Guilty Verdict

Mashable’s Kriten Nicole Torrent Spy Loses Cast Against Hollywood Heavyweights

Mashable’s Andy Angelos: TorrentSpy Defies Court Order and Rekindles Hollywood Angst

Apple and Think Secret Settlement

Mashable’s Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins Yahoo! China Found Guilty of Copyright Infringement

Bryan Gardiner from Wired Apple Kills Think Secret: Publisher Nick Ciarelli Talks

Philosophy behind Freenet Covers free flow of information, communication is humanity, knowledge is good, democracy assumes a well informed population, censorship and freedom, solutions, anonymity, copyrights, rewards, alternatives and new approaches like Fairshare.

Eff.org: From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

Books on Freedom of Speech

Conclusions…

The author of the ChangeMod.com piece concludes:

I believe it all comes down to this: The cyberspace is increasingly gaining in popularity and everybody wants a piece of the pie; and control is the way to get that piece.

My own Conclusion

I found this quote from EFF’s Mike Godwin located on the The Free Network Project. Freenetproject.org provides free software which lets people publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. The network is entirely decentralized and publishers and readers of information are anonymous. FreeNet believes without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack. Some may disagree with anonymity but I find decentralization to be technically on target.

“I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she’s too young to have logged on yet. Here’s what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say ‘Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?’”
–Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

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