Viva la Darknet
Paul Boutin has penned an article for Slate discussing John Walker’s cyberpunkish (in the “information wants to be free” sense, not in the “black-clad, mirrorshade-wearing mid-90s fashion zombie” sense) treatise “The Digital Imprimatur.”
Walker’s manifesto explores initiatives toward a more controlled and surveillable Internet backed by special interests such as the movie and music industries and the American intelligence and defense communities. The ultimate solution for the parties would be a unique digital ID for every Internet user (also called an “Internet Driver’s License” and other euphemisms by compliant politicians) that would mark every transaction, site visit, download, and purchase made online. This sounds impossibly Orwellian but it’s one of the cornerstone ideas behind Microsoft’s Next Generation Secure Computing Base, slated to appear in their next major operating system release in 2006.
