Protecting the Internet Without Wrecking It (Boston Review)

The Boston Review is carrying a lengthy article by Jonathan Zittrain on protecting the net from security threats. In your editor's opinion, the analysis of the problems is good, while the proposed solutions are a bit more questionable. "What might this system look like? Roughly, it would take the form of toolkits to overcome the digital solipsism that each of our PCs experiences when it attaches to the Internet at large, unaware of the size and dimension of the network to which it connects. These toolkits would run unobtrusively on the PCs of participating users, reporting back—to a central source, or perhaps only to each other—information about the vital signs and running code of that PC, which could help other PCs determine the level of risk posed by new code."

A number of responses have been posted, including one from Richard Stallman. "With free/libre software, no one has the power to make a malicious feature stick. Since the source code is available to the users, millions of programmers are in a position to spot and remove the malicious feature and release an improved version; someone will surely do so. Others can independently compare the two versions to assure you which version treats you right. As a practical fact, free software is generally devoid of designed-in malware."

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