IP: Truth squad needed to combat Internet lies, commercializatio

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Truth squad needed to combat Internet lies, commercialization

BY DAN GILLMOR
Mercury News

Maybe the Internet needs a fact squad.

Big Government and its allies in Big Business aren't just taking firmer and 
firmer control of technology. They're spewing Big Lies.

They tell us that digital-era copyright laws maintain the traditional 
balance between copyright owners and users, when the fact is that the 
owners have captured almost total control. They tell us that the Internet 
would crumble if they allowed the formation of new kinds of Net addresses 
to compete with .com and the other carefully rationed domains, when the 
fact is that the Net could handle thousands of domain suffixes and thrive.

And for everyone's good, they insist, the Net can't be the public commons 
its founders envisioned, when the fact is there's no technical reason why not.

How should we combat such lies? A group of about two dozen Internet 
pioneers and activists was exploring that question and others related to 
the future of the Net at a gathering last weekend in a Los Angeles suburb.

I heard much angst about the threats, and some modest consensus about

<snip>

http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/dgillmor/dg050901.htm



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