It is possible to conclude that privacy is over. Our society has replaced human connection with a digitized version of ourselves that is accessible to anyone who wants to know more about us and the future looks cloudy. What do I mean by this? Cloud computing is the new regime of how humans communicate and it has replaced a handshake and good conversation with Facebook status updates, Tweets, Email by Phone, texting, email, etc.
Jonathan Zittrain has addressed this within The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it citing the dangers in the ultimate shift away from hard storage on a land based and personally controlled PC to the internet based “cloud computing” model. Zittrain explains that all the work that we used to do from our home PCs where we have privacy and control is now shifting to an online “cloud” that instead of depending on our own level one control of hardware are now putting your information out into the public and its safety dependent upon outside corporations and servers that you have no direct access to. (ref: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/intellectualproperty/27_zittrain.html). Another aspect that will be affected by cloud computing is that of peer production and peer to peer file sharing to create and maintain content. Where do we go from here? How will cloud computing affect us being able to share content that belongs to us? Yochai Benkler would say that we need to have unlimited access to information and P2P networks are vital in the creation and innovation of data moving forward. The Supreme Court has held during MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005) has given steam to cloud computing and moved away from peer-to-peer file sharing. The court has stated that “producers of technology who promote the ease of infringing on copyrights can be sued for inducing copyright infringement committed by their users.” (ref: http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2004/2004_04_480) Access to all information on the internet and increased security protocols that have made it easier to catch people infringing on copyrights for their own benefit or for others has a smaller and smaller window for future generations to “stand on the shoulders of giants” and innovate to benefit our society as the copyright laws tighten (http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak1/fr12/csle/material/Benkler%20IntellProprights%20and%20Production%20IRLE21()2002_81-107.pdf). What benefit is there to explore the increase of peer-to-peer file sharing and innovation if the laws are making it less and less accessible?
This website is dedicated to exploring the ideals of cloud computing and how it is affecting the common user of technology to continue to share information with each other over peer – to – peer networks going forward.
The P2P Evolution 