Decius wrote:
] bucy wrote:
] ] While I agree that in principle this is possible, I'm
]
] ] not terribly worried by it. I think it would be
] ] extrordinarily expensive to deploy and maintain... I may
] have
] ] some more to say about this later.
]
] Lets discuss this...
]
...
]
] This is also why it is important that we be prepared to deploy
] alternative systems if this system does not meet our needs.
] The internets power comes from empowerment. Its Ebay and
] google that drive this stuff, not amazon and cnn. You didn't
] learn computers so you could get books and broadcast news. You
] had both those things before. An internet that isn't free
] isn't an internet. So we build something else... We build
] fidonet again if need be. It was effective.
]
] If we don't allow ourselves to be locked into the mindset that
] we have to operate within the parameters of the existing
] system then we have nothing to fear from this.

John Walker wrote, in the orignally meme'd article: Whatever solutions are adopted [to create the Secure Internet]... , are likely to be with us for a long time. Whether they preserve the essential power of the Internet and its potential to empower the individual or put the Intenet genie back into the bottle at the behest of government and media power centres who perceive it as a threat will be decided over the next few years.

It will not be necessary to abandon the internet as long as a sufficient number of voices are raised which demand that provision be made for (relatively) unfettered peer-to-peer communication on the internet, and reasoned proposals are presented to decisionmakers for technical and procedural mechanisms to achieve those provisions. This would be an opt-in subset of the net, and the intellectual property exchanged would have to be explictly given over free exchange by their creators.

Hypothesis: The dynamism, creativity and excitement of this free subnet would be a sufficient countervailing force to prevent big media from crushing it, and a passion for free speech will prevent big government from crushing it.

RE: The Digital Imprimatur