Web control issues worry scholar
By Anick Jesdanun
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Internet is something like the nation's electric grid, where anyone can plug in an appliance.
Any computer can hook up to the Internet, and any software application can run over its underlying framework. The open, neutral framework is engineered to treat e-mail, the Web, instant messaging and other data traffic the same, a feature that encourages innovation.
But openness and neutrality are under threat as corporations assume greater control, Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig argues in a new book. He believes innovation could suffer.
Such dire warnings might normally be dismissed or overlooked by an Internet community more focused on the short term.
But coming from Lessig, a respected scholar with a firm grasp of law and technology, the warnings carry greater weight.
In his 1999 book, "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," Lessig warns of threats to free speech and privacy as the Internet becomes increasingly controlled by businesses, the technology they develop and the laws they push.
"The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World," published by Random House, is like a sequel: Lessig argues that innovation is under threat by those same efforts.
One tendency Lessig worries about is the development of software techniques that would let Internet service providers prioritize — and perhaps charge more for — certain traffic over others.
For wireless services, Lessig says, the government appears to be treating the airwaves as property much as it did during the broadcast era. That means more control for big corporations and less room for experimentation.
Likewise, he says, legal control over copyright, patents and other intellectual property on the Internet favors vested interests without considering that different rules might apply on this altogether different new medium.
Consider cable TV, which Lessig describes as the first "Napster." Broadcasters complained when cable services took signals off the air and repackaged them for homes. Yet the Supreme Court twice refused to shut them down, and Congress had cable services pay preset rates for broadcast rights.
With Napster, Lessig says, the solution was a court-ordered shutdown of the online music-sharing service, giving the music industry a blanket veto over innovations that may be unwanted competition.
Lessig also says he thinks the U.S. government grants patents that are too broad, such as Amazon.com's claims over the ability to complete shopping orders in one click and British Telecom's claims over hypertext links. He worries that smaller innovators won't have the resources to take on giant patent-holders.
Lessig considers the Internet a great enabler for individuals seeking greater freedom from corporations. Yet those corporations are using the law and technology to try to reinstate control online.
