There’s going to be an i-9/11 event Lawrence Lessig Law Professor from Stanford University

[seemslikeadream]

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4631871144083884704&hl=en


During a group panel segment titled “2018: Life on the Net”, Lessig stated:

There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn’t necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.

Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said “of course there is”.

Watch Lessig reveal the details at 4.30 into the following video:


Lessig is the founder of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He is founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.

[kimmerspixelated]

1. It would be quite powerful.

I hope they never have to use it. For most of us, it's the only place where we can get the real news, ....the grassroots organizations have been a real burr up Cheney/Bush's ass! They hate informed Americans! It would not be pretty if the net went black.

[snappyturtle]

2. As one who only watches the teevee news to see what garbage

is being spewed, I would be lost without the internets.