Bill Thompson: Europe must take back the Web

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

At

> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26695.html

there is much ado about an article by a person who must be very well known
in Britain.  Otherwise I can't explain why he is arousing such a fury.
Certainly his views are extravagant and partially interesting, but I don't
think they are very well reasoned.  E.g. he says we must give up the
concept of "cyberspace" and establish trusted national networks by a kind
of "people's TCPA", so that networks serve and reflect the interest of
people and cultures rather than those of US corporations.  He also thinks
that in Europe we have more confidence than in the US of being able to
impose meaningful legislation on the net(s).  Also, he seems to be very
fond of TCPA and camouflages this fondness as fatalism:  resistance is
futile, trusted computing is part of the tide of the time, it will happen,
either with our political participation or without it.

The basic flaws of this argumentation are, at first sight,

 - the concept of different worlds/spaces is present even in
   philosophy before the Internet came about, and cyberspace seems to
   map quite exactly to Karl Popper's world 3.   There may be some charm
   in "trusted computing", but that doesn't make the talk about
   "cyberspace" in any way less meaningful
 - Thompson likes "trusted computing" (I can even see some charm in it)
   but then procedes to use the Borg argument (i.e. "resistance is
   futile") which is usually a reason to distrust its proponent
 - there seems to be even less trust in EU politics than in US politics
 - I even tend to think that UK politics is worse than US politics.
   At least that is the experience from DMCA and software patents, see

        http://swpat.ffii.org/players/uk/

   as well as a wider range of issues.  And I would even hesitate to say
   that French, German or Italian politics is significantly
   better than that of Washington.  If you say that Dutch or Swiss
   politics are better, well, maybe you can also find some US state
   or region that has a fairly healthy political life.

Thompson is apparently receiving warm support from a lot of disgruntled US
citizens.  But that only clouds the real issues.  I can't see any serious
argument for or against the analysis which he is presenting.

Which is why I am wondering:  what is making people attach such a weight
to this rant?

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/