Salon.com Technology | Peer-to-peer terrorism

'Their hatred is implacable, their forces are decentralized. They seek the protection of remote hosts for their secret bases. Their networks are weblike and personal, difficult for outside observers to penetrate. They use e-mail, encryption and other new technologies to hide their dark doings.'

'Pay close enough attention to the descriptions of America's newest enemies coming from Washington's talking heads, and something starts to seem oddly familiar. Haven't we heard about these people before? Wasn't it just a few months ago that we were being warned about their dire plans and the civil liberties compromises required to fight them? But no. That wasn't about Osama bin Laden at all. That was about ... about ... Napster?'

Interesting article. I don't necessarily endorse it, but it's certianly worthy of thought.<//P>

'On the one hand every new tactic we develop to defend democracy can be turned against the forces of democracy somewhere else in the world. And on the other, every bulwark the Internet provides against the anti-dissent squads somewhere far off and repressive, it provides also against the anti-terrorist branch of the FBI back home.'

'Technology giveth, and it taketh away. The same filtering software that protects children from pornography is used by repressive governments to "protect" their citizens from critical opinions. The new formats for compressing music designed to sell more CDs instead became the leading techniques for its illicit distribution.'