John Young on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:18:25 +0100 (CET) |
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Re: <nettime> Google's fast track |
Lessig is wrong, and his apologia for the WSJ account is a waffle or worse, an attempt to deflect critique of his wrongness. May Obama take note. Key concept of Lessig's wrongess is "greater access to the Internet for those able to pay for it." As if that is sufficient to justify exploitation of a public utility not solely, nor intended to be, a commercial operation. Call it privatization by checkbook, call it the Russia model. First build a system with public funds and develop it and promulgate its usefulness with low- or no-paid public participation, and then once it success is assured, take it private, Web 2.0 it. Call it the Google no-ads addiction, then voo-doo users with meds upon meds. Same for the Microsoft OS, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more. It's all about rewarding investors before all else while calling it public service. Call it the FCC model. Dare Obama appoint Lessig to that post? You bet, along with other obliging commishes custom-trained by ICANN. Exclusive commercialization of some part of the Internet may be unstoppable but there is nothing wrong about demanding the dot-coms invent, develop, staff and pay for their peddling apparatus completely separtate from the public education part. Call that exclusively commercial Internet "Intellnet 2.0," for it will be all about spying on users in secrecy just like the government spies do while users are divertingly entertained with fantasies of empowerment. Commingling commerce with the public Net is as wrong as expecting the government to protect privacy. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org