Lessig to technologists: protect net neutrality

"Technologists must involve themselves in policy making or risk losing a free Internet.

This was the warning provided by Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, talking last night at an Internet Society of South Africa meeting in Cape Town.

Lessig, who is best known as the originator of the alternative Creative Commons licensing schema, predicted that the Internet would suffer a 9/11-type disaster in the future which will change the way the Internet functions.

"This probably won't have anything to do with Al Qaeda," he said. But it will be enough for governments to clamp down on the freedom of the Internet, he said. "They will say the Internet experiment didn't work," and put Internet restrictions and controls in place." -- Read more

Considering that US government has done this before and is quite skilled at using disasters to justify restrictions, Lessig's words may turn to be prophetic. We must prevent that.