While the organizations all charge something, not one puts content behind a true paywall. To do so . . . → Read More: I sold my soul to Google, can I get it back?]]> Well, this question was not asked by me but by a guy called Joe Wilcox on Betanews: I sold my soul to Google, can I get it back?. He raises a few points I never really thought of:

While the organizations all charge something, not one puts content behind a true paywall. To do so would prevent Google search bots from indexing the content.

So, basically the way search engines work (and this is not limited to Google I guess), limits the way you can drive business models – obvious but I never looked at it that way. The challenge is how do you balance “free” with still earning money? Joe quoted an Open Letter by Bill from 1976:

Most of you steal your software…One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?

To be fair: Even though I love my job, I do not work for free – I expect Microsoft to pay me for the work I do – and so far they keep doing it.

The conclusion is:

Google’s free worldview and business approach is fundamentally changing the value of content and other intellectual property produced at cost. I’ll end with this question: Should people be paid for things they produce?

It is actually an interesting philosophical debate to look at – something, which should be discussed without the usual emotions in but on a factual basis.

Roger

Sometimes I . . . → Read More: “Freedom of speech” does not mean you can say everything!]]> Sometimes I feel that people think the Internet is a room, where the laws of our society do not apply anymore… I read an article this morning on Swiss news called Drei Monate Haft für Beleidigungen auf Facebook – and here is an English version of it: Jail for French Facebook user.

Sometimes I wonder how naïve people are. In the community I live a politician was not re-elected because of the – let’s say very macho – statements he made on Facebook. Statements he might have made having a beer in a restaurant with his friends. Even there I think they would have been inappropriate but at the end of the day they stay within the walls of the restaurant (probably) and not within the “walls of Facebook”, where everybody can see them.

Does this impact “Freedom of Speech” – I do not think so. Freedom to me brings obligation as well and part of this means that you are free to say what you want as long as it does not e.g. illegally insult other people. There are laws on that in the real world and they apply in the digital world as well – and this is good

Roger

I recently had a . . . → Read More: Strong Authentication and Privacy – A Contradiction in Terms?]]> You know that I am not a big fan of the requirement for having all Internet users authenticate strongly. There are people in the security arena who think that this is the only way to fight cybercrime – and in parallel accept that they would kill freedom of speech.

I recently had a good discussion where somebody gave the following example: Would we be able to get completely rid of crime? Probably yes, if we would be ready to give up all our privacy and accept a 24*7 surveillance of everybody (I am not sure whether it would even work then but we could get close to). However, this is socially definitely not acceptable – not in the physical world, nor on the Internet. Nevertheless we want to have a certain level of assurance if we offer some service.

This is, where U-Prove comes in. We just announced the availability of the U-Prove CTP at RSA. This by itself is great news. However, when I talked about the concept, people sometimes failed understanding, what this really means – now I think we have a great showcase:

The German government will offer its citizens the possibility to apply for an eID starting in November. Additionally the Fraunhofer institute worked on leveraging U-Prove together with the German eID. An awesome case. Look at the video:

From my point of view, this technology is something you should think about and think about how to leverage it.

Roger