IP: more on How to own the Internetin your pare time

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Brownstein <cbrownst () cnri reston va us>
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 14:13:08 
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: How to own the Internetin your  pare time

Second the Comment re new thinking.

The real message seems to me that this industry needs to wake up to 
consider implementing serious institutional mechanisms (in whatever 
sector) that enable the (continued) open Internet.

Such an idea appears alien to the ISP and facility supply chain 
industry that emerged from 30 years of Federally supported R&D into 
the boom and bust of the economy and the real world of real 
infrastructure. The inheritors of that legacy are outstanding at 
moving the bits and (with increasing difficulty) at advancing the 
standards, but apparently not about realizing essential cooperative 
activities that go beyond that: tragedy of the commons multiplied by 
FUD and economic distress.

Their new masters (eg telco and catv) are totally clued in to 
regulatory institutions and how to manipulate them, but seem not to 
comprehend that the gain from the rising tide of innovation exceeds 
the rent from monopoly. They can fix the problem but you won't like 
the result.

The ideologues remain as clueless about the whole thing as ever, 
having achieved mastery only of the jargon.  Comments speculating on 
financial motives for these authors are simply unworthy of comment.




> Comment. When I read the paper I was with it till the CDC like 
> proposal. The it sounded contradictory with the main text and 
> SOUNDED like the standard " and fund us to do it" text.
>
> I have too much respec for the authors. They need to fill in the 
> missing logic in the paper.
>
> Dave
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Wagner <daw () cs berkeley edu>
> Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 09:10:42
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: IP: more on  Mind-blowing-- How to own the Internet
>       in yourspare time
>
> In article <B91A3610.108F2%dave () farber net> Sam Bennett wrote:
> >  I would find it very difficult to believe that the top dogs in the network
> >  security industries haven't spent a lot more time and money contemplating
> >  future exploits (obviously with the somewhat more realistic goal of stiffing
> >  businesses for as much money as they can) than this bunch.
>
> Believe it!  The authors of this paper are thinking beyond of industry's
> horizon.  These three folks are leaders in the field.  You might want
> to study the area a bit more, as I believe your comment is off the mark.
>
> I do believe the authors have identified a real risk.  Worms are getting
> more sophisticated, and the paper attempts to extrapolate to imagine
> how things might look in a few years.  The results are troubling.
> We've got a little bit of advance warning, thanks to their efforts:
> let's use it wisely.  We could discuss whether a CDC-like entity is the
> right solution or not, but let's not just ignore the problem.
>
> As for the rest of your comments, I find it disappointing that your
> remarks relied so heavily on appeals to emotion, and I would have
> preferred to see the notes on this list oriented at a more constructive
> dialog.  We've got a potential problem on our hands, and things could
> potentially get a lot worse in the future.  What do we do about it?
> What are the appropriate preventative measures?  Now's the time to
> start thinking.
>
> For the paper under discussing, see
> http://www.icir.org/vern/papers/cdc-usenix-sec02/index.html
>
> For archives see:
> http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/


-- 



Charles N. Brownstein   
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