The Computing / Internet war

[Darren]

The speech last for approx 30 mins before he fields a set of questions. Transcript available here

The topic being discussed is where we've come from in terms of computing, how copyright and law has tried to constrain and control technology along the way. He then talks about where we're likely headed in the future.

We're nearly all aware of draconian polices such as ACTA, SOPA & here Cory Doctorow explains why they crop up and will likely continue to do so. What we can do about them and how we can steer future changes in how computing and networks are implemented.

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the weblog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and "post-scarcity" economics.

If you want a reason as to why you should sit through this video I'll put it down as this:

If you don't want your experience of computing / networking to come to an end or change without your input, then watch this video and inform yourself. Technology is, and will be changing. Along with it your everyday computer / internet experience, this is taking place right now. In particular UEFI has potential for huge changes in locking you into proprietary software, ways of working and could even alter the value of the hardware you own.

Censorship such as the UK ISP policing of domains newzbin & thepiratebay. Policies such as ACTA / SOPA will become an even harsher reality unless you take the time to understand why they're propagated and the policies that help drive them.

Inform yourself and help steer changes that push us forward together rather than backwards into the mire.