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NikolaosVolanisFirstPaper 8 - 22 Nov 2009 - Main.NikolaosVolanis
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ready for review | | | C. + D. Indeed, by enabling both confidentiality and identification, encryption technology can be perceived as both “liberating” and “oppressive” technology, depending on the actual parameters that define its use. The aforementioned examples demonstrate that as software or hardware development becomes a commercial activity, it is produced by a smaller number of for-profit entities, which, in turn can be incentivized or disincentivized by the state in adopting specific technological solutions or complying with governmental regulations. Although, for example, the IT-savvy community has argued that such an artificial attempt to control the flow of information and to restrain it within the U.S. would be futile, still, companies in the business of producing encryption technology prefered to comply with government regulations, in fear of invoking government contempt (or worse). Likewise, a company called Network Associates (the successor of the PGP software), originally a strong opponent of encryption regulation, started to offer products that adopted key recovery mechanisms for corporations. With regard to the hardware industry, Cisco provides us with another example of a company submitting to governmental incentives through regulation: In 1998, it announced a router that would enable encryption (thus providing encryption at the OSI network layer, not the application layer, as it is the case with software such as PGP), but which would contain a switch which would allow the government to override such encryption (p.71) so as to monitor internet traffic. | |
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< | The aforementioned cases indicate that the state may influence the supply of hardware and software by commercial entities, by effectively asserting indirect control over the commercial entities themselves. A final and more recent example may be that of Google and its political/business interaction with the Chinese government: Google adopts the technology mandated by brute political force; Chinese governmental concerns about information over the net are fully addressed (since they are embedded in computer code) and Google can access and profit from the Chinese market. It takes a couple of golden handshakes and historical or current politically sensitive issues like “Tiananmen Protests” or “Tibetan independence” are seamlessly purged from the Google search results. A similar story took place with Yahoo! in 2002 | >
> | The aforementioned cases indicate that the state may influence the supply of hardware and software by commercial entities, by effectively asserting indirect control over the commercial entities themselves. A final and more recent example may be that of Google and its political/business interaction with the Chinese government: Google adopts the technology mandated by brute political force; Chinese governmental concerns about information over the net are fully addressed (since they are embedded in computer code) and Google can access and profit from the Chinese market. It takes a couple of golden handshakes and historical or current politically sensitive issues like “Tiananmen Protests” or “Tibetan independence” are seamlessly purged from the Google search results. A similar story took place with Yahoo! in 2002, whereas Microsoft's Bing it the most recent example search engine that respectfully bowed down before Party propaganda. | | | E. In this context, communications software and hardware acquires a meaning that surpasses the field of engineering. It becomes a form of control and thus a focus of political contest and choice (p. 28). And in such political contest, free software (“free as in free speech”) acquires its full potential
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