A great speech by Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing on why it's important to oppose SOPA and the general trend toward specific use computers.
Cory Doctorow discusses the history of Digital Rights Management, followed by a bit about online copyright law.
He draws a parallel between the copyright laws like SOPA and the development of "secure computing" where computers that can't run arbitrary software become more commonplace, both as attacks on general purpose networks (the Internet) and general purpose computers (the PC).
In order to regulate the internet and computers, he says that the internet traffic will be monitored, and computers will contain malware and rootkits (software that prevents other programs from running, or prevents specific actions).
He presents this trend as bringing a political battle between people who want to preserve freedom, and the companies and politicians who are eager to restrict the internet and the general purpose PC.
itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail5151.html
Original: Fighting Surveillance and Control in the Near Future