

The End of the Internet Dream? - jgayduk
https://medium.com/backchannel/the-end-of-the-internet-dream-ba060b17da61

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pdkl95
[https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-
imprimatur/](https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/)

John Walker[1] was right.

The digital imprimatur was initially created with a lot of feet-dragging when
it came to implementing IPv6. so the ability to publish was _de facto_ lost
behind NAT. Software authors then helped finish the imprimatur when they tried
to work around the limitations of NAT by centralizing tools until network
effects (Metcalfe's Law) took over.

Promises of an "open API" increased this centralization, as people made the
mistake of interpreting "open" to mean the commons (Free Software), when it
really meant "open access to our proprietary service that we can revoke at any
time".

So now we are in a bad place. The free and open internet is almost completely
controlled. So what are _you_ going to do about it? Are you going to continue
support this centralization by supporting things like WebAssembly, so the
people centralizing power can get their "cable tv set-top box" that they
always wanted (by rendering their own text)? Are you going to let even more
DRM be placed in the browser? Expanding EME is just a matter of time; the
video-only limitation will last until someone from another industry start
suing about being left out.

Are you going to continue to let people distract you with shiny features,
regardless of the long-term implications? Are you going to let your boss or
"the market" dictate what you do, even when you know it is going to hurt the
internet? Are you going to put personal profit over the long-term viability
the free and open internet?

Fighting an entrenched power isn't free, and combat often has casualties. Some
of us have been suggesting for over 20 years that it would be a good idea to
fight the creation of the digital imprimatur _early_ , when it was easier to
fight. Nobody listened, so now we have a _much harder_ battle to fight, which
will require a larger sacrifice to fight. Maybe you should start paying that
cost now, instead of kicking this problem down the road even more when it will
be even harder to fight and require and even larger sacrifice.

Fix this problem now, by taking a hard-line against anything enabling the
digital imprimatur. You're making a choice every day when you implement _and
use_ the internet.

[1] author of AutoCAD

