What Happens When The Internet Is Trusted?

from the do-we-want-this? dept

Someone who prefers to remain anonymous wrote in with a link to a Newsweek story painting a scary portrait of the future internet that some big companies envision. Under the name (popularized, of course, by Microsoft) "trusted computing", they're trying to clean up the internet. However, just like pioneering places in the real world, "cleaning up" often means "locking down", which can take away the rights and freedoms of individuals mainly because a small number of them abused those rights and freedoms. At the same time, however, the article suggests that in such a cleaning up, we're simply making the internet safe for big companies. The big question, then, is there a way to deal with the bad seeds in an online world where anything goes that doesn't require restricting our freedoms and openness? Or are the two things mutually exclusive? I'd like to believe that it's possible to preserve the rights and freedoms, but it will take more work - because it involves focusing on stopping the abusers, instead of just blocking everyone.

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