filtering

Overheard: The Great Firewall of China

Depending on how you look at it, the Chinese government’s attempt to rein in the Internet is crude and slapdash or ingenious and well crafted. John Ritter, The Connection Has Been Reset

When American technologists write about the control system, they tend to emphasize its limits. When Chinese citizens discuss it—at least with me—they tend to emphasize its strength. All of them are right, which makes the government’s approach to the Internet a nice proxy for its larger attempt to control people’s daily lives.

Overheard: Who gets to be the copyright police?

Network-level filtering means your Internet service provider – Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to – could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright. Brad Stone, AT&T and Other ISPs May Be Getting Ready to Filter

All this talk about the future responsibilities of ISPs reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle. I’ve been saving all the pieces and putting them together in various ways, but the picture always turns out the same. Tiered Internet Services.