The peoples' democratic blog of Matt Hayward

Thank you Alternative Tentacles (who may well be Jello Biafra incarnate. Who knows!) for publishing this on Facebook. I hope this will never happen but this is a lecture from July 28 entitled ‘The Future of the Internet‘ and is quite dire. Here’s a shorter excerpt on Youtube. Terror is coming online! Quickly followed by the iPatriot Act.

Basically they’re talking about a terrorist like event online. Such an event would be used as a catalyst to introduce legislation that would greatly reduce our freedoms and functionality online. Not that’s it’s without precedent. Call me far out, but without Pearl Harbor, the US would never have entered WWII; without 9/11, there’d be no Patriot Act I or II. Yes sir, there’s speculation of an iPatriot Act. Yet another example no doubt of how you’d have to sacrifice a little more liberty for freedom. Which was in 2001, and still is now an absolute contradiction in terms.

The comment itself was made by Laurence Lessig. Yes I’m sure you’re thinking big pedophile beard and ugly glasses, but he’s a Stanford law professor and was instrumental creative commons licensing for internet content. This is the really sensational comment though:

“Remember that after 9/11, the government dropped the Patriot Act in about 20 days, and it was passed, and the Patriot Act is huge. I remember someone asking a Justice Department official, how do they write such a large statute so quickly? The answer was, it’s been sitting in a drawer at the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event that would allow them to drop it.”

What makes me a bit skeptical is that while the internet was a US invention, it’s not governed solely by the US. Some massive level of international co-operation would be required to make such an act happen. Well you heard it here, or there, first. Don’t you love living in a world where the only way politicians can stay in office is to ensure you’re terrified and they can protect you from a situation they’d very much envisaged coming? Bugger.