Professor Lawrence Lessig of Harvard University warned that in the move to broadband technologies, "we are at the beginning of a war" .

Professor Lawrence Lessig of Harvard University warned that in the move to broadband technologies, "we are at the beginning of a war" that threatens to return the Internet to centralized control, in an address at the ninth International World Wide Web Conference. Saying that "extraordinary blindness reigns in my country," Lessig, at the conference in Amsterdam, said that in the move to broadband technologies cable companies and Hollywood movie studios are threatening the return the Net to centralized control where content will no longer be produced from the bottom up and distributed freely. At the root of the problem, he said, is the "bullshit" American belief that the "government should stay out of the Internet." Because of this "extraordinary blindness" people are standing by while cable companies are maneuvering to gain the power to choose how the network is used. One reason Americans are standing by and allowing the Net to be limited is that they are so impressed by e-commerce they worry that government intervention could ruin a good thing. People should realize that the government has been instrumental in the development and success of the Net, Lessig said. The breakup of AT&T (T) in 1984 gave "birth to innovation around telecommunications," because it forced the telephone platform to become neutral when it came to content and services. The core value of architecture of the Internet is the "end-to-end argument" which Lessig said "keeps intelligence at the ends of the network while keeping the network itself simple." Because of this value, the network is not in a position to discriminate and therefore has "no influence on content." In this type of system, the market chooses what works and the better idea prevails. "It's not b-to-b or b-to-c that matters," he quipped, "it's e-to-e, end-to-end, that makes all the difference." The International World Wide Conference is a scholarly affair where many of the world's top computer scientists present technical papers and debate the state of today's Internet.