On Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 10:44:32AM -0700, colbyd wrote:
> I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that elite producers will not win
> the content-control battle.
>
> why?:
>
> 1. asymmetrical bandwidth access--consumers can't run servers; download
> speeds much higher than ul speeds; use of virtual private networks to
> reduce content-serving by end-users, etc.
This is why we need to create are own parallel net, not just with
things like Freenet, but with things like Ethernet, HPNA, 802.11g.
However, this parallel net has to be patched into the "main" Internet
in a manner that doesn't put at the mercy of the whims of cable
companies and such - which means doing phreaking-like things such as
connecting it to the net through regularly locating new 802.11b leaks
(i wonder how long it'll take before they'll actually start switching
to 802.11g - until then, their internal wireless nets are practically
wide open, even if they do have WEP enabled, which they usually don't)
from corporate intranets and physically modifying Internet equipment
to surreptitiously connect it with the parallel net. Freenet alone
won't cut it.
> 2. ISP bottlenecks and Akamai-like 'distributed networking'- that manages
> bandwidth resources for big content providers, etc.
>
> 3. generally, the end of common-carriage and the vertical integration of
> infrastructure ownership and content distribution (ala AOL/TW).
Yet more reason for the creation of a parallel, underground net.
> 4. digital rights management (DRM) and 'trusted systems' deployment. It
> will be an Xbox world in which users are dumb termini for content consumption.
>
> 5. Utilization of new media as surveillance tools by producers: Passport
> and 'authentication services.'
Further more reason for the use of an underground net.
> 6. Utilization of new media for surveillance by law enforcement sans
> judicial oversight (USAPATRIOT ACT)
Yet another reason to separate from the traditional net et al. This
also means that we have to first get away from silly and irrelevent
legalism (which just psychologically weakens us), and why we have to
really start resisting the system.
> 7. generally, all of this aimed at information enclosure aided by the
> expansion of intellectual property rights.
Which also shows why we MUST abandon legalism. By acknowledging
things like intellectual property laws, you give them power over you.
We must not only get over the squeamishness about "breaking the law,"
but we must also abandon the whole concept of the law. Furthermore,
we must eliminate any idea of the "legitimacy" of the police and BSA
thugs et al - we must view and treat them as really just a bunch of
marauding corporate enforcers and bandits.
> 8. The fortuitousness of the 'war on terror' to expand governmental
> controls of new media uses. This, in turn, is supported by elite producers
> who see in Freenet-like protocols an understandable danger to info-control.
See above.
> There are many other points one could make here. Historically, elite
> control of emerging media has been the norm. I cannot emphasize enough that
> such control over the techniques of speech has been central to control over
> other productive resources. On this crucial point, Anthony Giddens has much
> to say. 'Counterhegemonic' uses of technologies of speech in modernity have
> been seldom and sporadic at best. Are new media different in this regard?
[snip]
And thus we must do what is shown above. We cannot simply acquiesce
to their control of media and their fucking laws; we must /really/
resist them, rather than just complain about such and such merger and
such and such law and such and such decision - such complaining gets
us nowhere, and *does* nothing.
--
Yes, I know my enemies.
They're the teachers who tell me to fight me.
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance,
hypocrisy, brutality, the elite.
All of which are American dreams.
- Rage Against The Machine
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