War on the internet: it's all about power
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"There really is a war on the internet and, like all wars, this war is about power," said Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a recorded message on Saturday to the War on the Internet forum held in Melbourne on the weekend.
When we last discussed the war on the internet in November 2011, it was in the context of the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and, of course, that's dominated the news for the last week. But it's really about more than that.
It's about more fundamental issues. Who gets to communicate with whom? In what context? With what technology? How private is that conversation? Who gets to listen in, and why?
The forum was organised by the Electronic Frontiers Australia and The Greens, and featured Suelette Dreyfus, co-author with Assange of Underground; Greens' Senator Scott Ludlam; Crikey's Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane; and headline speaker Jacob Appelbaum, internet security researcher, software hacker and activist.
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Running time: 41 minutes, 16 seconds
Audio recording by Anthony Agius (@decryption).
Stigherrian's podcasts from the Linux.conf.au 2012 have been posted separately at ZDNet Australia and TechRepublic.