The 28th annual Chaos Communication Congress (AKA 28c3) recently wrapped up in Berlin, and one particular conversation caught our eye among the many worthwhile talks that took place. Cory Doctorow, the co-editor of Boing Boing and outspoken opponent of DRM, gave a lecture on the "coming war on general computation." Doctorow believes that the internet copyright battles he's spent so much time speaking on have just been "a skirmish." The real battle, he says, will take place over general purpose computers (the device on which you're reading this likely qualifies), because there's no way to make an open computer that can't be used for harm as well as good.

Due to the possibilities for misuse and ever-increasing grievances against computers, Doctorow sees a world in which more and more people call for regulation of PCs. The worry is that we'll end up in a world with our computers tied down by software that runs without our consent or knowledge to keep them from misbehaving (or to keep users from using their computers to misbehave). His talk lasted nearly an hour, so sit back, relax, and learn about what you can do to avoid this future. It's available on the 28c3 YouTube page, along with a number of other great talks from the conference.

Thanks to Klaas from the forums!

Image credit: NK Guy