A Fine Line

In both Doctorow's "Lockdown" and Boyle's "The Public Domain", they talk about the past of privacy and copyright and how it might influence the future of computing. Of course in the past, file sharing wasn't as big of a concern as it is today, but as the nature of the internet changes and consumers have more ways to find copyrighted content, legislators and companies are trying to restrict access to the internet. Coupled with these restrictions, even the manufacturers are starting to sell products that will automatically tell if you have tampered with the software or if you have put illegal content on it. This is fast becoming an invasion of privacy but as long as profits are protected, the out of touch politicians don't deem it illegal.  It was very interesting how Boyle brought up the issue of how many Apple products are hosts of illegal content but of course Apple will never have to face the issue of being sued by a music or movie company. With the recent closure of megaupload and the threat that was SOPA, it is not a far stretch to assume that our time on the internet will become more monitored and restricted.