Journal: News & Comment

Would we create the Web today?

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While we could, some say we would not:

What would a web designed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation or the Disney Corporation have looked like? It would have looked more like pay-television, or Minitel, the French computer network. Beforehand, the logic of control always makes sense. "Allow anyone to connect to the network? Anyone to decide what content to put up? That is a recipe for piracy and pornography."

And of course it is. But it is also much, much more. The lawyers have learnt their lesson now. The regulation of technological development proceeds apace. When the next disruptive communications technology—the next worldwide web—is thought up, the lawyers and the logic of control will be much more evident. That is not a happy thought.

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