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How did technologists, government officials and a host of other early players turn something with no obvious business model into a system that has become so intrinsic to the new century? A series of decisions proved critical -- choices that helped turn data transport into a commodity business and put the power in users' hands, not in the centralized telecommunications companies' controlling grasp. At a telecom conference in Massachusetts last week, Bradner, senior technical consultant at Harvard University and a longtime leader in the formation of Internet standards, listed 10 crucial decisions along the way. (You may have other candidates; send them to me and I'll list them on my Web page). Here are Bradner's picks:
How did technologists, government officials and a host of other early players turn something with no obvious business model into a system that has become so intrinsic to the new century? A series of decisions proved critical -- choices that helped turn data transport into a commodity business and put the power in users' hands, not in the centralized telecommunications companies' controlling grasp.
At a telecom conference in Massachusetts last week, Bradner, senior technical consultant at Harvard University and a longtime leader in the formation of Internet standards, listed 10 crucial decisions along the way. (You may have other candidates; send them to me and I'll list them on my Web page). Here are Bradner's picks:
The Internet was built on principles of "end-to-end neutrality," an engineering rule of thumb calling for smarts at edges of the network rather than in the middle. The idea was--and remains--that fancy features work better at the edges. Since we can't anticipate the uses to which the network itself might be put, globally optimizing it for one use might regrettably disadvantage others. Thus the basics, such as data encryption between distant users, and verification that data sent is actually received, are left to the computers that attach to the Net rather than to the network itself. The Net's job has been determinedly simple: Any given intermediary will use best efforts to move the data it receives at least one step closer to its declared destination. But a number of pressures are converging to complicate that job.
The Internet was built on principles of "end-to-end neutrality," an engineering rule of thumb calling for smarts at edges of the network rather than in the middle. The idea was--and remains--that fancy features work better at the edges. Since we can't anticipate the uses to which the network itself might be put, globally optimizing it for one use might regrettably disadvantage others.
Thus the basics, such as data encryption between distant users, and verification that data sent is actually received, are left to the computers that attach to the Net rather than to the network itself. The Net's job has been determinedly simple: Any given intermediary will use best efforts to move the data it receives at least one step closer to its declared destination.
But a number of pressures are converging to complicate that job.
When Ken Hamidi was fired from Intel Corp. in 1995 after a long workers’ compensation battle, he didn’t go quietly. Mr. Hamidi, 55 years old, spent the next two years criticizing the company in e-mails sent to thousands of co-workers. Convinced he was a victim of age discrimination, Mr. Hamidi even publicized his campaign by dressing as a cowboy and going on horseback to distribute printed versions of his messages to employees entering Intel’s Folsom, Calif., facility, where he once worked. Now, the California Supreme Court will determine whether the former employee’s e-mail is a form of electronic trespassing, as Intel claims, or an expression of free speech. ...At issue is whether an unwanted, unsolicited e-mail can be actionable as a form of trespass. After Intel repeatedly asked Mr. Hamidi to stop sending his e-mails and he refused, the company sued him in 1998, charging him with “trespass to chattels” — a 17th century tort that prohibits meddling with and damaging another person’s property for personal gain. Chattels is an old English word for “property,” and the trespass-to-chattels tort has rarely been used in hundreds of years. Intel couldn’t use the more common “trespass to land” complaint because Mr. Hamidi didn’t actually step on Intel property. Mr. Hamidi’s supporters argue that in charging him with “trespass to chattels” Intel is, in effect, trying to erect borders across the Internet. A ruling for Intel could set a precedent allowing anyone to sue anybody else for trespass at the mere presence of an electronic signal, they argue. For example, Yahoo Inc. could be sued by a company that doesn’t want its Web site trolled by Yahoo’s search engine. Or, eBay Inc. could sue a smaller online auctioneer for simply linking to its Web site.
When Ken Hamidi was fired from Intel Corp. in 1995 after a long workers’ compensation battle, he didn’t go quietly. Mr. Hamidi, 55 years old, spent the next two years criticizing the company in e-mails sent to thousands of co-workers. Convinced he was a victim of age discrimination, Mr. Hamidi even publicized his campaign by dressing as a cowboy and going on horseback to distribute printed versions of his messages to employees entering Intel’s Folsom, Calif., facility, where he once worked. Now, the California Supreme Court will determine whether the former employee’s e-mail is a form of electronic trespassing, as Intel claims, or an expression of free speech.
...At issue is whether an unwanted, unsolicited e-mail can be actionable as a form of trespass. After Intel repeatedly asked Mr. Hamidi to stop sending his e-mails and he refused, the company sued him in 1998, charging him with “trespass to chattels” — a 17th century tort that prohibits meddling with and damaging another person’s property for personal gain. Chattels is an old English word for “property,” and the trespass-to-chattels tort has rarely been used in hundreds of years. Intel couldn’t use the more common “trespass to land” complaint because Mr. Hamidi didn’t actually step on Intel property.
Mr. Hamidi’s supporters argue that in charging him with “trespass to chattels” Intel is, in effect, trying to erect borders across the Internet. A ruling for Intel could set a precedent allowing anyone to sue anybody else for trespass at the mere presence of an electronic signal, they argue. For example, Yahoo Inc. could be sued by a company that doesn’t want its Web site trolled by Yahoo’s search engine. Or, eBay Inc. could sue a smaller online auctioneer for simply linking to its Web site.
Internet sites for amateur screenwriters are opening faster than James Bond sequels. Like sites devoted to unsigned musical acts and unpublished authors, virtual screenwriting spots like ProjectGreenlight.com and Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope.com promise to use the Internet as a tool to break through industry entry barriers while allowing participants to hone their craft through friendly exchanges. The newest of these screenwriting sites is TriggerStreet.com, which went online yesterday. The venture is an offshoot of the actor Kevin Spacey's production company. With its heavily animated graphics and Mr. Spacey as a magnet, the site encourages writers to submit their scripts, so that movie executives, who are constantly seeking new talent, might drop by and discover them. Mr. Spacey said he decided to start his site after realizing that the Internet could act as a source of creative projects that might never be delivered through agents and other traditional channels. He said, "Sometimes the best material you ever see is the stuff that gets chucked over the wall." (For instance Mr. Spacey's 1999 comedy "The Big Kahuna" was written by a chemical engineer with no Hollywood credits.)
Internet sites for amateur screenwriters are opening faster than James Bond sequels. Like sites devoted to unsigned musical acts and unpublished authors, virtual screenwriting spots like ProjectGreenlight.com and Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope.com promise to use the Internet as a tool to break through industry entry barriers while allowing participants to hone their craft through friendly exchanges.
The newest of these screenwriting sites is TriggerStreet.com, which went online yesterday. The venture is an offshoot of the actor Kevin Spacey's production company. With its heavily animated graphics and Mr. Spacey as a magnet, the site encourages writers to submit their scripts, so that movie executives, who are constantly seeking new talent, might drop by and discover them.
Mr. Spacey said he decided to start his site after realizing that the Internet could act as a source of creative projects that might never be delivered through agents and other traditional channels. He said, "Sometimes the best material you ever see is the stuff that gets chucked over the wall." (For instance Mr. Spacey's 1999 comedy "The Big Kahuna" was written by a chemical engineer with no Hollywood credits.)
This is just one example of how the Angels and other outlaw biker gangs have grasped the advantages of the information age — and how they put that information to use. Within months of the computer theft, an undercover police agent was dead. Being a computer expert for the bikers themselves is no safer, even though the titles of Web master and hacker are now among the gangs' most vital and valued positions. Two Web masters for the Bandidos gang have been murdered since January 2001.
Being a computer expert for the bikers themselves is no safer, even though the titles of Web master and hacker are now among the gangs' most vital and valued positions. Two Web masters for the Bandidos gang have been murdered since January 2001.
Gigi Sohn hopes that geeks have become so enraged by recent anti-piracy schemes that they'll finally want to fight back. The 40-year old lawyer, head of the Public Knowledge nonprofit group here, plans to recruit a ragtag band of technophiles and train them to become a corps of effective political activists on the Internet front.
Gigi Sohn hopes that geeks have become so enraged by recent anti-piracy schemes that they'll finally want to fight back.
The 40-year old lawyer, head of the Public Knowledge nonprofit group here, plans to recruit a ragtag band of technophiles and train them to become a corps of effective political activists on the Internet front.
US judge Colleen McMahon ruled late yesterday that ISPs did not infringe a patent filed by BT more than 25 years ago.
Internet portals in China, including Yahoo's Chinese-language site, have signed a voluntary pledge to purge the Web of content that China's communist government deems subversive, organizers of the drive say. The "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for China Internet Industry" has attracted more than 300 signatories since its launch March 16, said a spokeswoman for the Internet Society of China, who identified herself only as Miss Sun. ...Those who sign the pledge must refrain from "producing, posting or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability." The prohibition also covers information that breaks laws and spreads "superstition and obscenity." Members must remove material deemed offensive or face expulsion from the group.
Internet portals in China, including Yahoo's Chinese-language site, have signed a voluntary pledge to purge the Web of content that China's communist government deems subversive, organizers of the drive say.
The "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for China Internet Industry" has attracted more than 300 signatories since its launch March 16, said a spokeswoman for the Internet Society of China, who identified herself only as Miss Sun.
...Those who sign the pledge must refrain from "producing, posting or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability." The prohibition also covers information that breaks laws and spreads "superstition and obscenity." Members must remove material deemed offensive or face expulsion from the group.
The wreck became a major archeological discovery. And although much of the treasure was eventually sold to cover expenses and reimburse investors, it was all meticulously documented by archeologists. Every doubloon, silver ingot and clay pot was photographed front and back, described, categorized and logged for posterity. Now it is lost again. In what seemed like a good idea at the time, the archaeologists' archive was created digitally. Trouble is, it's encoded in a now-obsolete format. Fast forward 15 years, and the archive -- stored on hundreds of floppy drives and backed up on VHS video cassettes -- is irretrievable. The equipment needed to read it is long gone. Well, not quite. Sellam Ismail, a vintage computer fanatic, has the necessary floppy and tape drives in his voluminous collection of outmoded machines.
The wreck became a major archeological discovery. And although much of the treasure was eventually sold to cover expenses and reimburse investors, it was all meticulously documented by archeologists. Every doubloon, silver ingot and clay pot was photographed front and back, described, categorized and logged for posterity.
Now it is lost again.
In what seemed like a good idea at the time, the archaeologists' archive was created digitally. Trouble is, it's encoded in a now-obsolete format.
Fast forward 15 years, and the archive -- stored on hundreds of floppy drives and backed up on VHS video cassettes -- is irretrievable. The equipment needed to read it is long gone. Well, not quite.
Sellam Ismail, a vintage computer fanatic, has the necessary floppy and tape drives in his voluminous collection of outmoded machines.
In the Sony Music case, the company introduced its copy-protected discs in Europe to help stanch rampant copying of music over the Internet. The encryption technology, called Key2Audio, allows a disc to be played only on traditional CD players, not on computers where the songs can be copied onto homemade discs or sent over the Internet. The protection works by including an initial track of bogus data. Because computers are designed to read data first, they continuously try to read the bogus track, and are effectively stymied from going further — to the actual music. Music fans figured out that marking the edge of the disc with a felt-tip pen caused the computer to ignore the bogus track and play the music. Look ma, no more protection!
In the Sony Music case, the company introduced its copy-protected discs in Europe to help stanch rampant copying of music over the Internet. The encryption technology, called Key2Audio, allows a disc to be played only on traditional CD players, not on computers where the songs can be copied onto homemade discs or sent over the Internet.
The protection works by including an initial track of bogus data. Because computers are designed to read data first, they continuously try to read the bogus track, and are effectively stymied from going further — to the actual music.
Music fans figured out that marking the edge of the disc with a felt-tip pen caused the computer to ignore the bogus track and play the music. Look ma, no more protection!
Mr. Villeneuve considers himself a "hacktivist" - an activist who uses technology for political ends. "I think of hacktivism as a philosophy: taking the hacker ethic of understanding things by reverse engineering and applying that same concept to traditional activism," he said. He takes part in Hacktivismo, a two-year-old group of about 40 programmers and computer security professionals scattered across five continents. It is just one of a handful of grass-roots organizations and small companies that are uniting politically minded programmers and technologically asute dissidents to combat Internet surveillance and censorship by governments around the globe, including those of Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Laos, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates as well as China.
Mr. Villeneuve considers himself a "hacktivist" - an activist who uses technology for political ends.
"I think of hacktivism as a philosophy: taking the hacker ethic of understanding things by reverse engineering and applying that same concept to traditional activism," he said.
He takes part in Hacktivismo, a two-year-old group of about 40 programmers and computer security professionals scattered across five continents. It is just one of a handful of grass-roots organizations and small companies that are uniting politically minded programmers and technologically asute dissidents to combat Internet surveillance and censorship by governments around the globe, including those of Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Laos, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates as well as China.
Some of the world's best-known hackers unveiled a plan this weekend to offer free software to promote anonymous Web surfing in countries where the Internet is censored, especially China and Middle Eastern nations.
On July 26, Alcatel USA Inc., based in Plano, Texas, prevailed in a suit against former employee Evan Brown, who claimed that he -- rather than the company -- owned rights to a software idea that he asserts had long existed in his head. After 5 1/2 years in litigation, DSC Communications Corp., n/k/a Alcatel USA Inc. v. Evan Brown has companies, employees and legal pundits wondering who owns an idea if it hasn't been expressed in a tangible form but an employee has signed an employment contract making no exclusions under the "inventions" clause. ... The company wants to say that every idea you have while you work for it belongs to the company, and the employee wants to say that everything I do on your time may belong to you, but once I leave and go home at night, it belongs to me, says David L. Burgert, an IP partner in Houston's Porter & Hedges. But courts are looking for bright lines, he says. "To get caught up in the whole concept of trying to figure out how an idea came to someone -- whether it was at 5:01 p.m. or 4:59 -- is something no court is going to be eager to do."
On July 26, Alcatel USA Inc., based in Plano, Texas, prevailed in a suit against former employee Evan Brown, who claimed that he -- rather than the company -- owned rights to a software idea that he asserts had long existed in his head.
After 5 1/2 years in litigation, DSC Communications Corp., n/k/a Alcatel USA Inc. v. Evan Brown has companies, employees and legal pundits wondering who owns an idea if it hasn't been expressed in a tangible form but an employee has signed an employment contract making no exclusions under the "inventions" clause.
... The company wants to say that every idea you have while you work for it belongs to the company, and the employee wants to say that everything I do on your time may belong to you, but once I leave and go home at night, it belongs to me, says David L. Burgert, an IP partner in Houston's Porter & Hedges. But courts are looking for bright lines, he says. "To get caught up in the whole concept of trying to figure out how an idea came to someone -- whether it was at 5:01 p.m. or 4:59 -- is something no court is going to be eager to do."
But MIT has taken a completely different direction with a project called OpenCourseWare (OCW) that could stop the trend of commercialising online education dead in its tracks.
When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a $50 million grant from the Pentagon to outfit the ''soldier of the future,'' researchers used a vivid image to spark the public imagination: an armored urban trooper suited up in the high-tech battle gear the university was being paid to develop. Only problem was, the MIT soldier was cribbed from a $2.95 comic book.
When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a $50 million grant from the Pentagon to outfit the ''soldier of the future,'' researchers used a vivid image to spark the public imagination: an armored urban trooper suited up in the high-tech battle gear the university was being paid to develop.
Only problem was, the MIT soldier was cribbed from a $2.95 comic book.
At the height of the college admissions season in early April, the director of admission at Princeton and possibly others in his office improperly and repeatedly entered a Web site set up to let Yale applicants know if they had been accepted as students, officials at both Ivy League universities confirmed yesterday. Yale officials filed a complaint yesterday with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Princeton officials apologized for what they called a "serious lapse of judgment" by the director, Stephen E. LeMenager. Princeton placed him on administrative leave pending an investigation of the incident, which was first reported yesterday by the online edition of The Yale Daily News, the undergraduate newspaper.
At the height of the college admissions season in early April, the director of admission at Princeton and possibly others in his office improperly and repeatedly entered a Web site set up to let Yale applicants know if they had been accepted as students, officials at both Ivy League universities confirmed yesterday.
Yale officials filed a complaint yesterday with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Princeton officials apologized for what they called a "serious lapse of judgment" by the director, Stephen E. LeMenager. Princeton placed him on administrative leave pending an investigation of the incident, which was first reported yesterday by the online edition of The Yale Daily News, the undergraduate newspaper.
On May 21, I received an email informing me that the World Trade Organization (WTO) was going to dissolve itself and create a new organization that would "have human rights rather than business interests as its bottom line." Why? Because of "recent studies which indicate strongly that the current free trade rules and policies have increased poverty, pollution, and inequality, and have eroded democratic principles, with a disproportionately large negative effect on the poorest countries." ...While parodies such as the email may be meant to be funny, it turns out that the WTO takes them very seriously. Could it sue the Yes Men, on the basis of this or similar parodies, arguing that they have violated copyright and trademark law? The First Amendment's strong protections for parody suggest the answer should be no, but the WTO may still try.
On May 21, I received an email informing me that the World Trade Organization (WTO) was going to dissolve itself and create a new organization that would "have human rights rather than business interests as its bottom line." Why? Because of "recent studies which indicate strongly that the current free trade rules and policies have increased poverty, pollution, and inequality, and have eroded democratic principles, with a disproportionately large negative effect on the poorest countries."
...While parodies such as the email may be meant to be funny, it turns out that the WTO takes them very seriously. Could it sue the Yes Men, on the basis of this or similar parodies, arguing that they have violated copyright and trademark law? The First Amendment's strong protections for parody suggest the answer should be no, but the WTO may still try.
That, at any rate, is how much of the commercial media world views the Internet saga. New technology thing came along. Couldn't figure it out. Seemed important. Threw a lot of money at it. Down a hole. It's over now, thank God. And that would be the story's end, if it weren't for one stubborn fact that refuses to vanish -- instead it just sits there, center stage, after the curtain has dropped behind it, thumbing its nose at the booing crowd: The Internet itself hasn't gone away. Hundreds of millions of people around the world continue to bend it to their own ends, in chaotic, unstable and unpredictable ways. As a generator of instant wealth, the Net may now be a big bust; as a generator of instant ideas, it keeps thrumming along. This is a difficult fact for our media culture to digest. The media cover technology on a predictable cycle -- a rhythm of hype and scorn that you can follow like clockwork each time a new wave of innovation sweeps the high-tech landscape. For nearly a decade, the Internet story has followed this arc; by all rights, it should be over by now. ...The crucial difference between these two books is that Weinberger focuses on people who actually use the Net -- whereas Motavalli concentrates on people who didn't, and probably still don't.
That, at any rate, is how much of the commercial media world views the Internet saga. New technology thing came along. Couldn't figure it out. Seemed important. Threw a lot of money at it. Down a hole. It's over now, thank God.
And that would be the story's end, if it weren't for one stubborn fact that refuses to vanish -- instead it just sits there, center stage, after the curtain has dropped behind it, thumbing its nose at the booing crowd: The Internet itself hasn't gone away. Hundreds of millions of people around the world continue to bend it to their own ends, in chaotic, unstable and unpredictable ways. As a generator of instant wealth, the Net may now be a big bust; as a generator of instant ideas, it keeps thrumming along.
This is a difficult fact for our media culture to digest. The media cover technology on a predictable cycle -- a rhythm of hype and scorn that you can follow like clockwork each time a new wave of innovation sweeps the high-tech landscape. For nearly a decade, the Internet story has followed this arc; by all rights, it should be over by now.
...The crucial difference between these two books is that Weinberger focuses on people who actually use the Net -- whereas Motavalli concentrates on people who didn't, and probably still don't.
Sarah D. Bunting and Tara Ariano are obscure names in the high-stakes world of Hollywood TV production. They are anything but L.A. insiders; Bunting works in Manhattan, while Ariano is based in Toronto. Yet their opinions carry real weight among the producers and writers who fashion many of the most popular programs on television. The two women are co-editors of a Web site called Television Without Pity, and that's a name producers know extremely well. True to its name, Televisionwithoutpity.com critiques shows mercilessly and includes message boards where vast communities of passionate viewers register everything from arcane appraisals of a program's story line to their hatred of an actor's leather jacket. When TWoP editors run interviews with writers and producers on the site, it is usually because the Hollywood types have contacted them, a little dazed by the level of the site's vitriol. ...Any notion that the Hollywood telegentsia hovers above the fan-site fray was shattered two years ago when Aaron Sorkin, creator of ''The West Wing,'' bitterly responded to an online complaint; he posted under his own name on Television Without Pity (or, as it was then called, Mighty Big TV). A year later, Sorkin wrote a ''West Wing'' episode that savaged TWoP and its ilk, portraying hard-core Internet users as obese shut-ins who lounge around in muumuus and chain-smoke Parliaments. It was his best and loudest available form of revenge against a phenomenon that has not always treated him fondly. One disgruntled ''West Wing'' viewer recently demanded on TWoP that Sorkin show his fictional president and first lady ''being nice to each other some time.'' She went on: ''I don't mean show us they love each other -- that's been established. I mean call each other something other than 'Jackass' and 'Medea.' Or give each other a kiss hello. Something!''
Sarah D. Bunting and Tara Ariano are obscure names in the high-stakes world of Hollywood TV production. They are anything but L.A. insiders; Bunting works in Manhattan, while Ariano is based in Toronto. Yet their opinions carry real weight among the producers and writers who fashion many of the most popular programs on television. The two women are co-editors of a Web site called Television Without Pity, and that's a name producers know extremely well. True to its name, Televisionwithoutpity.com critiques shows mercilessly and includes message boards where vast communities of passionate viewers register everything from arcane appraisals of a program's story line to their hatred of an actor's leather jacket. When TWoP editors run interviews with writers and producers on the site, it is usually because the Hollywood types have contacted them, a little dazed by the level of the site's vitriol.
...Any notion that the Hollywood telegentsia hovers above the fan-site fray was shattered two years ago when Aaron Sorkin, creator of ''The West Wing,'' bitterly responded to an online complaint; he posted under his own name on Television Without Pity (or, as it was then called, Mighty Big TV). A year later, Sorkin wrote a ''West Wing'' episode that savaged TWoP and its ilk, portraying hard-core Internet users as obese shut-ins who lounge around in muumuus and chain-smoke Parliaments. It was his best and loudest available form of revenge against a phenomenon that has not always treated him fondly. One disgruntled ''West Wing'' viewer recently demanded on TWoP that Sorkin show his fictional president and first lady ''being nice to each other some time.'' She went on: ''I don't mean show us they love each other -- that's been established. I mean call each other something other than 'Jackass' and 'Medea.' Or give each other a kiss hello. Something!''
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