Ledger

Issue date: 4/21/05 Section: Opinion

One of the greatest myths spread by users of the Internet is that, because it is a wide-open space free from regulation and free to almost anyone to access, it will always be that way. It is a patent falsehood, and one that elicits mild amusement from those who study the development of the Internet from its creation to the present time.

Many of these people, inspired by the likes of Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University professor who wrote the seminal book, Code and other Laws of Cyberspace (inspired by the phrase "Code is Law"), are showing that the second generation of the Internet, already being developed, will likely showcase a domain, or series of domains, thanks to the open-source software revolution, that are tightly controlled and quite the opposite from what we are currently used to.

As you can imagine, there is quite a bit of concern expressed by groups whose ethical values lead them to contribute arguments along a privacy vs. security divide and who feel strongly that this move is both a good and bad development.

The (over) simplified argument goes something like this. On the one hand, there are those whose ethics lead them to value security for practical reasons. Anyone who has had to check their computer daily for viruses or spyware knows what I am talking about.

The poorly designed Windows is easy to infiltrate and a favorite target for crackers (those who break code for nefarious reasons). Hardly a day goes by where there is not news of a new virus alert from Symantec or Microsoft or a news item about identity theft.

The only real solution would be to redesign the MS-DOS program that Windows is based on, but that would render all Windows programs obsolete.

On the other hand, there are those whose ethics value a higher degree of privacy that the Internet can afford them. Many of these advocates believe that this is a right guaranteed to them by Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

These individuals believe strongly in the libertarian view that the less regulation, the better for the individual. These users employ all sorts of programs to protect their identity while online such as anonymous remailers, which can conceal both the identity and the true email address of the user, and very advanced encryption software, which can be used to mask their actions while they are online.

There has been, in the last few years, a possible bridge between the two groups that is growing in popularity: open-source software. Simply put, open-source means that the basic code used to create a program is not secret once the program has been created. Rather, it is shared with anyone who wishes to view it.

Once regarded as a joke that was bound to have a limited life in the online world, both privacy advocates and the corporate world have now embraced it. The best example is the Internet browser, Firefox. The project originated with executives at Netscape, but eventually spun off into its own independent project, and has taken the Internet world by storm.

In the few months since it has been released, Firefox has taken over 20 percent of the market share away from its leading rival, Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox is an excellent example of a program that is reasonably secure from hackers and viruses, and can be easily and quickly patched if a glitch is spotted (the average time for a Firefox patch to be released once a flaw has been uncovered: 48 hours. Average time to patch a glitch discovered in Internet Explorer: 4 months (and its not very effective for very long).

Firefox and the open-source revolution is certainly not the answer to the privacy vs. security debate, but it is an interesting place in which to see where it might lead.

Firefox is available on the web at www.getfirefox.com.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools