142.177.74.66: the critical conceptual metaphor - "net" as a thing to catch people in

2003-12-23T23:42:51Z

the critical conceptual metaphor - "net" as a thing to catch people in

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The '''net of control''' is a name given by [[Steven Levy]] to an Internet where legal liabilities were strictly controlled and [[identity dispute]]s difficult. In effect, [[outing]] and claims that one was [[diluting the trademark]] could be made automatically without human effort, by simple bots.

"The net" could become a complete [[conceptual metaphor]], in that, it could describe a device for catching people in. This is to be deeply considered...

The implications of the imposition of such a net of control would be violent, or at least, oppressive to the point of systemic violence. As Levy writes, [[Lawrence Lessig]] is seeking "alternatives in which the law can be enforced outside the actual architecture of the system itself" (see [[sysop vandalism]] and [[libel pit]] for two immediate consequences of relying on [[technological escalation]] to resolve what amounts to [[political dispute]] and [[identity dispute]]) "but admits that he considers his own efforts somewhat quixotic."

Lessig is the world's foremost expert on political and creative freedom on the net, and the primary author of the [[Creative Commons]] license. He is not to be ignored. However, this does not mean that there are not allies:

Levy says "Certain influential companies are beginning to understand that their own businesses depend on an open Internet. (Google, for example, is dependent on the ability to image the Web on its own servers, a task that might be impossible in a controlled Internet.) Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are sounding alarms. A few legislators like Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Norm Coleman of Minnesota are beginning to look upon digital rights management schemes with skepticism. Courts might balk if the restrictions clearly violate the First Amendment. And there are pockets of technologists concocting schemes that may be able to bypass even a rigidly controlled Internet. In one paper published by, of all people, some of Microsoft�s Palladium developers, there�s discussion of a scenario where small private �dark nets� can freely move data in a hostile environment. Picture digital freedom fighters huddling in the electronic equivalent of caves, file-swapping and blogging under the radar of censors and copyright cops."

These "digital freedom fighters" are, of course, [[trolls]].

"Nonetheless, staving off the Internet power shift will be a difficult task, made even harder by apathy on the part of users who won�t know what they�ve got till it�s gone. �I�ve spent hundreds of hours talking to people about this,� says Walker. �And I can�t think of a single person who is actually going to do something about it.� Unfortunately, our increasingly Internet-based society will get only the freedom it fights for." Trolls cannot do more than agree.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3606168/

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142.177.74.66: the critical conceptual metaphor - "net" as a thing to catch people in