Sun, 06 Nov 2005

Could the Web Not be Invented Today?

They're probably right: lawyers and politicians would be all over any new "disruptive" technology, trying to control it or banning it outright.Just witness the reaction to the peer to peer applications that have emerged in the last few years.

What these folks don't seem to realize is that "disruption" is just a synonym for "change", and change is the only constant the Universe provides ...

Corante's Copyfight has a piece up about this new column in the Financial Times by James Boyle celebrating (a few days on the early side) the 15th anniversary of Berners-Lee's first draft of a web page . The hook is this question: What would happen if the Web were invented today? From the article: '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...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.'

(link) [Slashdot]

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