Collateral damage

July 11th, 2008

According to Jonathan Zittrain, we’re all going to go to hell in a handbasket because devices are increasingly closed.

According to Adam Thierer, it doesn’t matter because they’ll get cracked open anyway:

So, Jonathan, I hate to pick on you again buddy, but what exactly is the problem? Apple has put another great device on the market and people immediately took steps to open it up and see if they can make it even better. Sounds like progress to me.

The Zittrain thesis is just getting harder and harder for me to take seriously.

Well, yes, up to a point. The issue isn’t that it’s possible to crack open devices like the iPhone. The issue is the collateral damage that gets caused when heavy-handed legislation is used to try to prevent what’s going to happen anyway:

Germany has just passed a new law that adds more “anti-hacker” provisions to the German criminal code. Although the new rules are meant to apply narrowly to hacking, critics are already complaining that they may prevent necessary security and network research.


No Responses to “Collateral damage”

  1. Jill on July 20, 2008 1:19 pm

    Hi. This comment really has nothing to do with your blog entry, but I wanted to let you know that I used one of your photos on a blog entry. Hope you don’t mind. I linked you Flickr account at the bottom of the article- but did you want to be credited as “tim_d” or “Tim Duckett”?
    http://killjill.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/20-rules-for-the-convenience-store/

    Your photos are beautiful. I’m jealous of your talent.
    -Jill

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