Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mr. Ram Narayan, professor at the Asian College of Journalism for mentoring me. This dissertation would not have been possible with out the works of William Gibson, the Creative Common of Lawrence Lessig and the megalomania of Bill Gates.

Contents

Topic Page No. 1. Introduction 4 2. Chapter 1 : The Matrix Evolves 8 3. Chapter 2 : Zaibatsu’s come home 16 4. Chapter 3 : Tail between the legs 23 5. Chapter 4 : From dust to rust 35 6. Chapter 5 : Of Addictions and reality 39 7. Footnotes: Who said what… 43 8. Bibliography : Roll of honour 48

Introduction

This introduction starts with a basic statement: ‘The internet is in essence a part and an expression of cyberpunk’ The statement mentioned above raises a lot of questions. The most pertinent of which may be: what is cyberpunk? Or what is the internet? Both the questions may be equally important. For both of the questions are interrelated in more than one way.

The internet for its part has evolved beyond the limits for which it was initially envisaged. The founding universities created a network, one which used phone lines to connect at least two computers. This network was created so that computers in two geographically distant places could easily and quickly transfer data between themselves. As a result of this, files of information could be ‘shared’ between two people who were sitting thousands of miles away from each other. The US army also hoped that this network could be used to remotely launch nuclear warheads. That is, an army general sitting in Washington could, by entering a few commands, easily launch missiles from a silo that was in another state. This was the internet, in its early avatar as Arpanet.

Today, things on the net are different. Millions of people from all over the world connect to the internet to perform various activities, the least of which could be: checking email, reading news, downloading Mp3s songs etc. More than just file sharing between universities happens on it. Given the population that uses the internet today, and its questionable safety, the US army wouldn’t even imagine using it for something as controversial and dangerous as Weapons of mass destruction (as nuclear weapons are called today).

Thus the internet changed with time. As more and more people got access to it, they created applications or programs that they wanted. The simple open structure of the internet endorsed and encouraged this. As a result the various ‘activities’ that we can perform over the internet are the result of the programs that people created. Whether its email, VOIPs, MMORGS, P2P downloading or other activities, it is people who have shaped the internet into what it is today.

This shift of the internet from a simple data sharing network to ‘cyberspace’ is something that its creators never imagined. But it’s one of the main cyberpunk aphorisms: ‘the street finds its own use for things’. Alternately, this means, technology once it’s released in society, is not always utilised as envisaged by the forces that created it; instead the technology and society interact with one another to create a relationship which affects both. Thus the internet is a gleaming example of how technology and society interact to create something new. In this way the internet is an expression of cyberpunk ideals.

But the internet is also a part of cyberpunk. Cyberpunk, a genre of science fiction, has one defining feature— the presence of cyberspace. In all of cyberpunk expression, be it books, music or movies, there is always a computer network that enables people to interact with each other. It’s a network that allows its users to exist in another reality, a virtual reality, one that is not constrained by the laws of physical reality. For example laws of gravity, may not hold true in the virtual reality, whereas they are a given in physical reality. This virtual reality has another basic characteristic: it’s a reality dedicated to the creation, sharing and dissipation of information. This virtual reality is cyberspace: an unrestricted space that enables a reality free from the confines of physical constraints, such as those of distance and demographics.

The internet has evolved into a network quite like the cyberspace described above. A place where people thousands of miles away each other, meet, interact, create communities and worlds, without moving an inch from the comfort of their homes and offices. Thus the internet of online communities such as Orkut, or online worlds such a Second Life, is the cyberspace essential to cyberpunk science fiction. In this context the internet is a part of cyberpunk.

The internet of today is an expression of cyberpunk ideals and an essential part of cyberpunk.

This has specific significance for India. Over the years India had become a preferred destination for large global software corporations. These corporations in turn, now employ a considerable number people who churn out terra bytes of software. Some of this software continually changes the working and the functionality of the internet. In spite of this, the internet in India is still in its infancy, the connections are slow as compared to global standards, and a large part of the country still does not have access to it. The law of the land pertaining to the internet are also limited.

All of this has created a scenario where technology is growing at phenomenal pace in ways that try to minimize physical constraints of infrastructure. Also this technology often finds it’s self in ambiguous zones of the law. This almost unchecked growth of technology mirrors that of the city of Chiba; the city that William Gibson envisaged in the cyberpunk classic Neuromancer.

This dissertation will try to comprehend the changes in the internet. It aims to see how technology is changing the structure and the underlying values of cyberspace. Where possible the dissertation will try to focus on the developments of Indian owned, operated and used sites of the internet.

Chapter 1: The Matrix Evolves

The internet today has a large variety of ‘communities’, people from all over the world share ideas, thoughts and even creations in them. But to understand ‘internet communities’, the meaning of the word ‘community’ needs to be modified in ways that allow for the change in interaction that the internet has brought about.

The basic definition of the word ‘community’, as given by an online dictionary shows how the definition needs to be revised so that it remains valid in this context.

Definition 1: a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

This definition assumes that the community is bound to a certain geographical area under a single government and shares common practises. In cyberspace these assumptions fail. This is because members of the internet community, almost essentially, can belong to the same ‘social group’ but, may ‘reside’ in places that are thousands of miles away from each other. These communities are not bound by any one government, this is because governments rule physical geographical areas, yet on the internet these areas simply do not exist and hence the word ‘government’ also becomes ambiguous. Since the members of the community can be thousands of miles away, it can be assumed that they do not share common cultural and historical heritage.

Thus clearly certain omissions and inclusions are needed to define ‘communities’ that have grown on the internet. Thus a second definition can be used:

Definition 2: a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists

The ‘other group’ definition holds more water in this regard. The online communities that have risen often see them selves as being distinct from other such communities and from the rest of cyberspace as a whole. There is one addition: the common group interacts with in itself through and exists on the internet.

Some scholars have expressed their doubts about the use of the word ‘community’ on the internet. They feel that online communities cannot be classified as communities because they are geared towards a specific goal rather than being a group of people who live together in an interrelated social structure1. However for the rest of the dissertation this definition will be used to understand ‘online communities’.

Now that the definition of online communities has been formulated, it can be compared to ‘real life’ or physical communities. The behaviour of physical communities is governed by four basic factors: physical laws, behaviour norms, legislated laws and market forces2. These factors and their effects can be seen from by taking a look at the act of theft.

When a person steals a sack of grain from a shop the fore mentioned factors affect him. The physical law of gravity will translate into the weight of the sack. Unless the man has enough exercise, even if he is able to steal the bag, he may not be able to carry the sack very far. The behaviour norms will ensure that he is labelled as a ‘thief’, and thus he will be looked down upon and may even be banished from the community he is a part of. The legislative laws will ensure that once he is caught, he is hauled to jail and imprisoned (conversely this law will also act as negative incentive). Market forces act by deciding the price of the grain sack. If the prices rise then theft may increase, but if the grain becomes extremely cheap then the incentive or the need to steal it will almost disappear. Thus together these factors will affect the behaviour of the ‘thief’.

But all the factors can be gauged and understood by the person on which they act. The physical laws are understood and felt. The community norms are drilled into future members during their upbringing. The legislated laws are available and practised in courts. The last, market forces, can be felt from the pressure they exert through price of (essential) commodities.

However these factors do not get directly translated into online communities and this leads to the difference between the two community types. To understand why this happens, the basic structure of the internet needs to be introduced. The internet has another behaviour modifying factor, namely ‘code’. The internet runs on programs or instructions that are created in a way that computers can understand and follow them. These instructions are called ‘code’.

The code decides the behaviour of the programs, the services the program provides and even the way it appears to users. The code becomes important because it creates online ‘spaces’ where the internet communities form, interact and grow. It is ultimately the code that decides and translates the factors that affect behaviour of physical communities onto online communities. For example, using code we could define an online space that does not follow the physical laws of gravity, or we could create an online space which has different norms.

This concept of an online space where communities can evolve is very similar to the online space described in Gibson’s Neuromancer3 series. In space described by Gibson, the ‘martix’ is an online city, where the data used by corporates is represented as skyscrapers. In essence the matrix is an online world, where the user can walk and move in ways that are similar to physical life. Thus the matrix is alternate world, one where the laws governing behaviour are decided by the code on which it is built.

‘Neuromancer’ is cyberpunk science fiction, but the matrix described in it can no longer be considered just that. The online world (community) of Second Life can be used to illustrate this. Second Life is a three dimensional (3D) virtual world where users can do almost everything they do in real life and more. Like real life, the users can own land, built houses, visit malls, interact with fellow residents, etc. The users can create new ‘products’ using code and these products can be bought and sold in the local currency, Linden Dollars. Apart from the activities that can be done in real life, the users in Second Life can also perform other activities such as flying.

Figure 1: The entry screen for the online world Second life.

The possibility of doing just about anything in Second Life is because the way this space has been coded. The code is designed in a way that allows all the activities that are mentioned above. Thus ultimately it is the code that enforces the behaviour of the community that has evolved in Second Life.

The four factors mentioned earlier in the chapter, are transformed in a very different way in Second Life. Physical Laws are coded differently. The user can define these laws (if this could be done in real life, then there would have been no need of Newton let alone Einstein). For example, the user can define an area where the sky is purple, things fall upwards and the people don’t get old or die. However all this can be done in a frame work defined by the code that has created the space of Second Life.

Norms also can be different, for example in certain online worlds stealing is an accepted4 method of gaining social stature in the community. In stead of being looked down upon, the community feels that a successful theft shows the computer prowess of the user. Thus he/she is ‘aptly rewarded’ with a higher social status.

Legislated Laws can fall into an ambiguous zone in these communities. Taking the theft example, in a community where theft is accepted and encouraged a law that goes against theft will not be accepted. Thus new laws have to be developed. However these laws are often expressed as guidelines5 from the company developing the online space. In many online communities, the user must agree to adhere to these guidelines before he/she can enter the online space.

Market forces also play a slightly different role on the internet. Like the physical world, products can be created, bought and sold in online worlds. Demand and supply can be extended to these worlds. However the inputs to create these products are usually the thought of the creator and his coding skill. Thus the product is not a physical commodity but a code that appears and behaves in a manner that is decided by its creator.

Hence the four defining factors behave differently in online worlds. But the transformation of these factors is not always visible or benign. The community that develops under these four factors is ultimately governed by the code. The main difference is that the effect of this code cannot be gauged or understood as easily as the behaviour defining factors in real life.

The code can disallow certain things while giving the impression of absolute freedom. Take for example the communities that exist on the AOL (America Online). These communities foster a space where people with similar thoughts can discuss and interact with each other. However the code of the AOL is designed in a way that does not allow more that 26 people to interact in the community at the same time6.

Thus although the community allows for free flow ideas, it inhibits mass meetings. In AOL there is no space where a large number of people can congregate, hold rallies and demand for changes in what ever it is that they want. In this regard the law is deeply ingrained in the system. The right to protest is surgically removed in a manner that the user doesn’t even notice its absence.

The company that develops the space also codes it in a way that enforces community behaviour. Although this may appear to be a gross violation of the freedom expected in online interactions, it is not an unforeseen situation. The Matrix in the Neuromancer series is also very similar this ‘controlled’ space. In the Matrix the various areas held by corporates are controlled and governed by them. These areas are under the developing corporates jurisdiction alone. The space is guarded to a limit where any unauthorised activity is repulsed by damaging the invading user’s body and mind7.

The developing situation in the internet communities is that a number of online worlds are moving to wards a more controlled environment. This trend has been described in cyberpunk science fiction. The online worlds thus are proof of how the current development of the internet is growing in manner that reflects the essence of cyberpunk. This developing paradigm will be further described in the next chapter.

Chapter 2: Zaibatsu’s come home The last chapter dealt with how ‘control’ is changing in online worlds. This chapter will attempt to discuss the change in the way corporate entities control the physical part of the internet.

The internet has three basic physical components. First, the hardware or the computer used to access it. Second the software that resides on the hardware and makes that access possible. Third, the internet connection through which the computer links or joins to the internet. All three of these components have to work together to make access to the internet possible.

With time the internet has grown. This growth has fuelled the evolution of various services on it. We can now make phone calls on the internet (VOIP), watch and upload movies (video blogging), play games (MMORPGs) and even listen to radio. The increasing functionality of the internet has also led to the growth of different revenue generation models1. Or simply put, the internet has opened doors to new methods of making money.

Most of the revenue generating models are based on advertisements that are fairly visible to the internet users. However there is a second and more profitable method of revenue generation that is hidden from them.

The internet has grown with time, primarily because more and more people have been able to access it. The increase in access has been due to a variety of factors, the major ones being the spread of (faster) optical networks and the fall in the cost of internet access. Yet there is a fundamental change that has fuelled the growth in functionality of the internet. This change is in the all the three factors mentioned above.

The greater functionality has been because the hardware, software and internet connections that are available today make those new functions possible. Faster processors mean that you can crunch more numbers faster. Better operating systems translate into slick graphics and music generation. Of course faster connections have made uploading and downloading of the graphics and music quicker.

Majority of the users have relished the prospect of being able to access and create content that had been under the monopoly of professionals. Anybody can now publish blogs, release music and games, without the need of any sort of professional training or help. But as we get comfortable with these new features that ‘enable’ us, the flip side also needs to be seen.

A vast majority doesn’t have access to the internet or fast computers. A large part of minority that does have access to new technology does not use it. For example, there are 55million blogs2 online today, yet everybody who has internet access does not blog. Building on that, video blogging has become a ‘rage’, but user generated and shared video is still restricted to areas which have internet speeds that make viewing and uploading of those videos possible.

Thus there are lot users who have the technology, but don’t use it. So why did they buy that technology?

Weird Al Yankovic3, answers that elegantly in his song ‘Windows 95 sucks’:

Well, I bought up. Brought windows home, and d'cided to boot it up.

But when I load it up, It says my memory is not enough... I'd be runnin' out. I need some extra RAM to fix me up...

I have to cough it up... Open my wallet up. It never stops. (4x)

It's Windows 95! It suckin' up my Drive. It' makes a pretty all fine. But my PC... is obsolete. I'll have to buy myself a brandnew machine...

Bring it up... Stick me up. You suck me in, and then you got me hooked. You got me..., you got me.

There's so much stuff to buy I need a new harddrive It's gonna suck me dry. My CPU says, 'don't have the speed', it takes an hour just to bring up the screen nanana,

Oh no. I making software buys, Wow! It's making Bill Gated come. Yoyo. You make a rich man come.

(This is an old song yet the context remains the same. ‘Windows 95’ can be replaced with ‘Windows XP’ or ‘Windows Vista’, the meaning would remain unchanged)

But like Weird Al says, once newer software is released, newer hardware is required for it to work as expected. Thus when ever the leading software makers decide to release new software, the user is almost forced to change his hardware.

But why would a user upgrade his old software? When Microsoft releases a new operating system, corporates and other software development companies start using this new version of Windows too. The newer programs that are released require the user to have this new version of Windows. As a result unless the user upgrades, he is forced to live in a market in which he unable to get access to other new software.

But when the user does upgrade his software, he needs newer hardware too. For example, the new version of Windows, Vista requires users to have 512MB of RAM4. Users who don’t have this amount of RAM will not be able to use Vista. As time goes by new software that is released will work with Vista only. The user may not be able to use new versions of basic programs like Word. Also if someone does send him a document written in the new version of Word, the user will not be able to read it. The user will have to upgrade his hardware just to be able to do most of what he can already do.

Thus the corporations that create software and hardware, in effect, force the users to upgrade. The user has no choice in this. He can choose not upgrade, but with time he will be forced to reconsider.

This situation has been prevalent for sometime. There have also been voices of dissent with it. Yet this situation is like those of Cyberpunk’s Zaibotsus5. As David Brin6 says:

"… a closer look at cyberpunk authors reveals that they nearly always portray future societies in which governments have become wimpy and pathetic … Popular science fiction tales by Gibson, Williams, Cadigan and others do depict Orwellian accumulations of power in the next century, but nearly always clutched in the secretive hands of a wealthy or corporate elite."

The hardware and software corporations of today represent this ‘corporate elite’. To understand this, we can take the example of India. India has become one of the desirable destinations for software developers. The reason for this is the availability of cheap skilled labour. In India the existence of these corporations has changed the trend of the employment market, IT jobs are the most desirable and easy to get. The companies are thus able to create cheap and sell expensive. This cannot be held against the software developing corporations, this is how the capitalist system works.

One cannot ignore that the corporations now control a large number of jobs available in urban areas. Their coming into the country has also had a multitude of other effects. Realty prices have increased, because more and more companies are vying for limited urban space. The higher pay that these companies are offering is targeted at a particular age group (20-35 years). This increase in available liquidity has changed the expenditure patterns in urban areas. The patterns have shifted from essentials such as food and shelter, to FMGCs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods). This trend has led to an increase in the availability and choice in consumer goods, while ignoring an increase in essential goods.

But how have the corporates managed to control the employment of the youth and through them the urban economy? The answer comes from Brin’s quote; the corporates were allowed to enter because the government of India gave them ‘incentives’. The government created the conditions that software corporates needed and then invited them. IT has developed into as such a desirable form of investment from corporates that the government does not want to see them leave. In effect the corporate control has increased because the government has become ‘wimpy and pathetic’. The ‘shining’ India is a corporate controlled nation.

The cities in cyberpunk, from Chiba, Boston- Atlanta Metropolitan Axis7 to the Northern frontier8 also represent a similar corporate control. They are referred to corporate havens which are outside government jurisdiction. These cities are used by software developing companies to create programs without having to worry about the law of the land.

The global cities of India, especially the Special economic zones (SEZs) and Software technology parks (STP) also represent a similar scenario. The current laws in India make the same situation possible. Software companies do not have to adhere to a large number of laws. They have to follow lenient building laws9, they can create as many floors as they want, other companies cannot do this. These companies are also to follow diluted labour and taxation laws10. The companies also have to pay lower prices for land, electricity etc.

Thus in India cities without laws have been created. The vacuum of legislated law has been filled by corporate decided law. The Zaibatsu’s have come to control almost everything. The Zaibotsu’s have come home.

Chapter 3: tail between the legs

Chapter 1 and 2 discussed how corporations have tried, with some success, to take over the internet’s physical and virtual aspects. But why are they doing this? Corporations do what corporations do best: make money. This chapter will follow the money trail.

Computers made copying very easy and efficient. Copying from digital media meant that the copies would be exactly like the original, there would be no loss of fidelity or quality. This was shift from earlier technology in which copies were always of a lower quality. But even if copies were made, they had to be physically carried to areas where they could be sold.

This can be explained as: when music tapes were copied1, the copy always was of lower quality. Thus even if someone did copy tapes, the low quality ensured that it was difficult to sell it on the market. Also these tapes had to be physically taken or distributed to the market place. Since physically carting tapes is not easy and bad recording was undesirable, not many copies were made, the copies that were made were difficult to sell. Thus these tapes did not affect the sales of original tapes. Since revenue collections were not affected, recording companies that held the copyright of those tapes did not bother about the illegal copies that did make it to the market.

The coming of music as digital files on CDs ensured that they could be easily copied using a computer’s CD drive. The copies had no loss of quality; they carried sound just like the original. However, the problem of distribution still remained. Although people did copy CDs, there was no profitable way in which they could be distributed and sold. Thus again it did not significantly affect the CD recording company’s profits.

Then came the internet and distribution became effortless. The internet ensured that the music (continuing with the music tape example) did not have to be copied onto a physical media, such as a tape or CD, in order to distribute it. Instead a person sitting in the United States of America could send the music files to another person, who was sitting, half way across the world in India. Thus the hurdle created by distribution was removed.

There was another factor. On the internet the music was of the same quality as the original and was free. So people could get whatever music they wanted from the internet without having to pay anything. This is when the recording companies woke from their state of coma. The recording companies realised that their revenues were dipping. People no longer needed to buy CDs sold; instead they got the music for free from the internet.

This free exchange and resultant fall in revenue happened in almost all industries in which there was a digital form: music, books, video and software.

This is where two things happened. First this fall in revenue of companies that had the copyright resulted in what later came to be known as DRM (Digital Rights Management). Second, it led to long tail economy. Both of these two factors directly and through indirect means have spelled one thing: end of privacy and anonymity on the internet.

3.1 Company ‘rights’, consumer wrongs Once recording companies realised that sales of their wares were dropping, they decided to stop all sorts of copying and distribution by people did not have the legal right to do so. They wanted to ensure that people who did not have the copyright (i.e. internet users) did not copy or distribute ‘their’ content.

Initially these companies tried to stop sites through which these copies were distributed. The sites were charged with distributing material that did not belong to them they were engaging in illegal activities. The first and most popular site to fall prey to this was Napster2. After this a number of sites were shut down. Sites, like Napster, had a central server through which, users could download copies of music, books etc. But this model had a basic flaw: if the server was removed then people could not download those copies. The industries shut down these servers. The music industry went to the extent of tracing people who had been engaging in this copying and hauled them to court.

But even after these measures this ‘illegal’ copying did not stop. Instead a new model for copying developed. This model called decentralised P2P3? (peer 2 peer) sharing did not need a central server. Instead one user could directly connect to another (more that one) user without the need of a constant central server. This way the first user could download files (music, books, videos and software) from the second user. Sites developed to cater to this P2P model. Unlike the central server sites, these sites just had a list of all the content that could be downloaded from other users. Since these sites did not have a central server they could not be shut down so easily.

Thus the companies that held the copyright went in for other measures to stop ‘illegal’ copying and distribution. They decided to embed ‘their’ content in a way that stopped users at every level. The CD’s software was modified in a way that the user could not ‘rip’ it, i.e. its content could not be copied onto a PC using a CD drive. Even the hardware was changed so that it would only play ‘original’ CDs manufactured and distributed by copyright holders.

These technologies are collectively known as DRM4 (Digital Rights Management). The argument given above may seem like the copyright holders protecting what is lawfully theirs. Unfortunately the companies did not stop at this. The DRM technologies have evolved from simple code that protects software and hardware into something far more controlling.

Imagine a scenario where you bought (simple down payment) a washing machine with the condition that every time you used it, you would have to pay the manufacturers. Also you would have to buy clothes that the washing machine recommended you to buy; in case you did not, the washing machine manufacturers could haul you to court.

The idea might seem absurd and unfair. Almost every body would find such a system oppressive (except the washing machine manufacturers who would make tons of money!). Yet this method of ensuring continued custom from the user is wide spread today. The only difference is that users are either not allowed to see the constraint or are forced to sign away their rights.

On internet DRM technologies ensure that once you’ve bought some thing, you’re forced to keep coming back. Take for instance ‘fairplay’ developed by Apple music. This software ensures that music from apple stores is downloaded only to authorised versions of apple software called iTunes5.

The DRM can be extended further to remove all measures that legally ensure that copyright holders do not over use their right. A notable victim of this is the user’s right to fair use6. The fair use doctrine entrails that any user can use the copyrighten material with out the permission from its creator. This doctrine was put in place so that people could publish their views on the product without having to face legal action from the creator. This way unbiased information about the product could be generated and distributed. This information would help the users of the product and help boost the sale of the product (provided the product did what it said).

The other victim to DRM was the ‘first sale’ doctrine7. This ensured that the user had to pay the creator of the product just once; i.e. at the time of purchase. After that the user was free to do what ever he felt like with the content.

On the internet these rights have been replaced by ‘agreements’ that are set up by the content creators. Many software manufacturers allow the user access to their software only if they agree to EULA (End User License Agreement). This agreement may ensure that the user cannot publish what ever he or she feels about it or that they cannot do as they please with the product without the creator’s permission.

Thus the code present in the product ensures that user give up his rights before he can access it. Hence the companies have tried to ensure through hardware and software that their content remains in their total control to levels that they are legally not entailed to.

Also software companies have developed their products in a way that it is compatible only with other products manufactured by them. So it is like the washing machine that forces the user into following what it wants.

The DRM technologies have also given a legal frame work to this organised oppression: it forbid the development of technologies that try to circumvent copy right protecting technologies. Thus anyone trying circumvention becomes a criminal hacker, a felon.

This raises a very basic question: since companies pay a lot of money to develop their content, why should users get it for free? This question has an easy answer. Especially for the music industry, the actual musician or the band, gets paid very little the recording company makes the money. Software companies on the other hand, burden users with unnecessary features and also force them to buy products from them (they also force the users to upgrade, as mentioned in previous chapters). Since the content true creator doesn’t get paid why should the user pay the recording company or why should they pay for features they don’t want? The answer to this is also simple: the corporate says so.

This is like cyberpunk fiction. To get what the user want he must pay the corporate large sums of money. Any other method is seen as hacking. Like protagonist in cyberpunk, the user who asserts his right to ‘first sale’ or ‘fair use’ becomes a criminal. Thus the Zaibatsu’s are going never lengths to make the user pay. When the user complains or reacts he is threatened with legal action. Conversely, as of now, the corporate have not gone to the extent of raising armies to secure their rights8, they don’t need to.

3.2 Wagging the tail Certain music, books, movies and software never seem to make it to the market place. It’s not uncommon that the commodity that you want is missing from shelves and ‘popular’ thought.

That’s what has come to be known as ‘the tyranny of lowest- cost- denominator fare’. In the of world retailing, a particular product can survive on shelves only if, the revenue generated by selling of the product, can pay for the shelf space. Media, whether its text based, acoustic or visual, suffers the most from this effect. As a result, a theatre shows a movie only if there are approximately 1500 people willing to watch it in a two week span, a CD is available only if two copies of it are sold in a month9. As consequence, products that cannot make the required revenue fade away from selves.

The consumer is forced to buy products that are available, not the products that he or she would ideally like to purchase.

This is where ‘long tail’10 steps in. Purchasing, follows a very common statistical phenomenon, a few ‘titles’ (music, books or software) sell a lot, while a large number of ‘titles’ are rarely bought. This can be seen from the graph, where the darker area, represents the titles that are purchased the most, while the trailing lighter part of the graph show the titles that are rarely bought. This trailing part of the graph is called ‘the Long Tail’. In the average physical model of retailing, the store will only carry products that lie in the darker area of the graph, as more people will buy those products and hence the revenue generated through their sales will be able to pay for the shelf space occupied by them.

Figure 2: the Long Tail graph.

In a physical store, area is limited; hence the shelf space is limited. The shelves will then be filled by products that are ‘popular’ (or lowest-common – denominator). But what if the self space is made limitless? In that case, the shop will be able to carry almost every title that has ever been released. It can potentially carry ‘popular’ products and ‘niche’ products, that is, products that you want but are not generally available. As a result the shop will be able to cater to all sorts of personal choices and likings. It is postulated that, if every one is able to get access to the title he or she wants, then, the number of titles sold in the ‘long tail’, could be more than the number of ‘popular’ title sales.

This reverses the traditional business model, where what sells is sold, instead everything can be sold now. But where can we get ‘unlimited’ shelf space? Unlike traditional shops, the internet does not have any constraint on the ‘shelf space’, there are no physical shelves. All the online retailing sites are an example of this. The site carries titles that are available, the buyer, just has to search and click to get what he wants. The title is physically kept in a warehouse, where the entire area is used for storage. Once the consumer has made his choice and paid through his credit card, then the title is sent to him or her.

This model is still constrained by the warehouse space and till now is being used for physical commodities, like paper backs and CDs. For mp3 music or ebooks, the situation becomes even simpler; the original file is stored on a server from which a copy is sent to the buyer. Server space can hold lot more data (music, movies etc) than a physical shop can. Thus a consumer can get any title he or she is looking for.

Yet one major problem still remained: how do you inform the user that the title that he wants, or one that he would like, is available on a particular site? This what computer programs, like ‘Adsence’, do. Every retail site has a list of titles that is generated once the consumer has selected the ‘title’ he or she wants. This list contains titles ( usually ‘people who searched for the title user has chosen, also chose this’ or simply, ‘other titles’) that the site has, which could interest the buyer. This model of retailing has casued the skyrocketing of sales from websites like amazon.com (books) and rhapsody.com (music).

As Anderson says “the cultural benefit of all this is much more diversity, reversing the blanding effects of a century of distribution scarcity, and the tyranny of the hit”. Welcome to an era free from market’s dictates of what’s ‘popular’ and available and what’s not.

Thus long tail is a panacea to the user’s problems. He can get what ever he wants and thanks to P2P networks and legal sites, whenever he wants. Anderson may be right this may ensure a ‘fragmentation of the market’.

But the creation of the list of titles is not as benign as it seems. Enter Google. The list needs to target a particular individual. For example, the list must be able to inform a jazz enthusiast when a new jazz album is released. To do so the program that creates the list must know who listens to jazz and who doesn’t. In other words the program must needs to have personal information about the user: what are his preferences, what would he like and so on.

The most efficient way to do this is to track the user. Like in detective novels, a sleuth is sent to follow the user. This sleuth makes the note of the product you searched for, the product you finally bought, the characteristics of that product etc. Thus the sleuth creates a profile of you. Over time he can predict what product will interest you enough to buy it and what wont. After he has made a note of this, he then masquerades as a marketing executive, who tells you about ‘exciting, new offers’.

In real life such spying would be contested at breach of privacy and restrictive trade practise. You could thus take the company to court and demand compensation. But what if the spy became invisible? Would you even get to know you were being tracked? The answer is no. Not unless something made you aware of the sleuth’s presence.

This invisibleness is what keeps the sleuth safe from the user; the user just doesn’t know the sleuths there. This is what Google does11. Every time you make a search on Google, it records the search result. It also links the search to you IP address (the address of the PC you are using). So over time Google knows what you usually search for and what you may be interested in. Once it has done this, it then changes into a marketing executive. It starts sending you advertisements about products it knows you will be interested in.

People who use Gmail, Google’s mail service have to face a bigger threat to privacy. Every time they open their email, with the content of the mail they are targeted with advertisements. The clincher is this: the advertisements sell products or services that are mentioned in the mail. This means that Google goes through every one’s mail to ensure that they can target you better. Although the company claims that a program, not a human, goes through the mail, people still feel that this breach of privacy.

So every time you go online some ones watching. 3.3 Big brother is watching

Corporate are watching you. They make sure they protect their rights, while taking away yours. They also track you down to make sure that they can sell you more stuff. Welcome to a new space where privacy as we know it is missing, where every one is forced to obey laws laid down by private enterprises. Any form of dissent is looked own upon and treated as a crime.

This scenario of controlled users has existed in all three of the ‘dystopic’ classics, namely 1984 (George Orwell), Brave New World (Aldrous Huxley) and Neuromancer (William Gibson). What makes the current situation cyberpunk is that electronics, especially the internet, are being used to track people. The situation is like that of The Matrix or Johnny Mnemonic, where even the once safe areas of the net have become places where privacy has been demolished. This feeling of being tracked or the axiom that descent in the electronic world is hacking, is a constant feature in cyberpunk. In this regard at least, welcome to the cyberpunk world.

Chapter 4: From dust to rust

From the preceding chapters, the changing facets of the internet have been discussed. As new graphical software rides on newer faster hardware, the internet has changed. Yet the pace of change has also brought with it, its quintessential opposite: obsolescence. This chapter will discuss how the industry change is affecting the environment.

The internet age had been defined by the pace at which computers have grown and morphed. The ENIAC has been reduced to a dime. The computers have appropriated music players, video screens and encyclopaedias. Yet this commandeering has also transformed the PC from a screen, keyboard, mouse and CPU to other smaller and portable forms. As the computers have marched on to take over more and more functions and ‘services’, the computers has also variegated into multiple devices dedicated to singular tasks.

The mp3 players, mobile phones, palmtops are all results of the technology that removed vacuum tubes and replaced them with silicon transistors. But even as we grapple with Moore’s law1 on the PC front, these devices are also undergoing their own evolution to become more ‘user friendly’ and portable.

Even though the trajectory of the PC and its offspring has been similar, the end game is the same. Newer and faster PCs and devices are flooding the market with increasing frequency. Globally the shelf-life of these devices has been falling2. Old devices are discarded for newer ones, at a rapidly increasing pace.

Where do these old PCs die? Well the answer is quite simple. The old PCs are mainly laid to rest in three Asian countries: India, China and Pakistan3. These three countries have collectively become the grave yards for old silicon. This silicon waste is called ewaste.

The western countries have a much lower shelf life of consumer electronics. As a result new devices routinely dethrone older ones. The shunned hardware then needs to be disposed off. This old hardware requires careful disposal, as a normal PC contains up to 50 separate chemical elements4. Some of these chemicals, such as lead, Cadmium and mercury are highly toxic. Also most of the computers are made form flame retardant plastic, which is very difficult to recycle.

The recycle of old hardware has a number of facets to it. Since the constituent materials are toxic, the hardware needs to go through a number of processes to remove them. These processes are expensive. Also discarded hardware has an advantage, as some of the discarded material can directly be reused. But even this needs elaborate processes that need to identify and remove material that can be potentially reused.

In the west, the responsibility of recycling has been given to the producer of the device. Thus every PC manufacturer has to ensure that his product has been properly decommissioned5. Due to this the manufacturers have set up points where users can go and drop off their discarded silicon. The industry has also started charging users an extra amount at the time of purchase. This amount is then used to process and scrap the device at the time of its disposal.

While this system has worked, it is not totally successful. A part of this waste is exported from these western countries, even though this is banned. This waste gets imported to countries, even this is banned6. The waste is thus moved from countries that lack proper facilities to process the amount of waste that lands up on its shores.

Most of the manufacturers that service the west also service the east. Yet they do not import their waste disposal policy with their product. In the Asian and African countries none of the manufacturers take the responsibility of disposing off old devices.

The imported and ‘indigenous’ waste piles up in these third world countries. In these countries human labour manually disassembles these PCs. The toxins used in some western country, ends up poisoning the wage labour, the soil and the water of some third world countries.

For example computer monitors contain almost 4% lead. In western countries there are stern laws that dictate how these display devices are to be disposed off. This makes disposing off monitors very expensive in the west. As a result most of them get exported to third world countries. Since these countries don’t have proper equipment to scrap the monitor, it is usually broken with a hammer stripped off its insides and burnt. The smashing off the monitor screen usually releases a fine dust of lead that can be breathed by the labour and result in poisoning. The stripped inside is then cleansed with acid to remove precious metals such as gold, this processes is done in open vats. The burning also releases very toxic gasses that can adversely affect the worker burning it. The improper removal of elements and the extremely risky disposal can also pollute the land and the water of the areas scrapping of old devices occurs.

But why is the discarded electronics exported? On an average the person who moves the waste from the west to the east, makes almost $35 on each PC7. The waste yard also makes money from selling the copper that is present in most of these devices. Thus the Zaibatsu move the waste from place to place because it is convenient and profitable.

The third world countries have thus become Dog Solitude8 and the Rust belt of the world. This scenario of fields of discarded electronics is also a feature Cyberpunk. The poisoned earth, stifling air and contaminated water of the ewaste landfills today are like Dog Solitude in Mona Lisa Overdrive9. The dystopia of pilling plastic and silicon has become a reality today. The acrid smell of decay has moved from cyberpunk thought to the realms of reality.

Chapter 5: of addictions and reality

During the course of this dissertation, the changing face of the internet has been traced. But when does the ‘net become an actual net? This chapter wraps up the various arguments and shows how ‘real life’ is affected by ‘Second Life’.

Case1 dreamt of the Matrix, Gentry2 was obsessed with its shape, Morphoeus3 hacked into it, the ‘major’ and the rest of section 94 used it as a tool, and the list is endless. Cyberpunk is full of characters who lead two lives, one on the wires of the net and the others in the senses of physical or real life. Yet even in cyberpunk these two lives intersect, and eventually one feeds off the other. In certain cases the cyber-world does displace the real world. While in others, the character remains rooted in the physical ‘meat space’. The culmination of this can be seen in the short story ‘The Winter Market’5, where the main character Lise, downloads her personality onto the Net and exists in that world only.

Yet is this shift to dual personality inherently bad? Or is it an addiction6? These questions have already split the urban population into two clear camps: first, the administration that considers the internet as a disease and second, the net enabled youth which feels that the net is essential and should not be controlled. The current discussion on the reduction of internet time in IIT Bombay7 clearly shows this.

The older generation clearly sees the increase in uptimes as a scourge that is eating into the time reserved for education, physical exercise, cultural activities, and of course ‘socialising’7. This section clearly feels that internet access by youth needs to be kept under control. The administration of IIT Bombay represents this.

However educational institutions administrations are not alone in this. This trend of non-corporate control extends all the way to the governments. Today the various governments both democratically elected (e.g. South Korea) and otherwise (e.g. China), are trying to control the internet8. The strong handedness of governments and their crack down was on global display in 20069, when three Asian countries, India, China and Pakistan, blocked access to the net for different reasons. While the restrictions were later removed in India and Pakistan, China still hasn’t. The actual blockade might have been put on hold, but the ideology behind is still very active.

The internet today has been labelled as an addiction, something that destroys life and even causes death10. But in the cyberpunk view of things the move towards two parallel lives is something that is inevitable. The section that is the supposedly ‘addicted’ or afflicted is now retaliating in ways that are natural to them, that is, on the net. This section represents a change, a rising population that is becoming comfortable with their dual lives.

The divide between the two sections has become even more obvious. The administrations of institutes and countries are attacking through ‘traditional media’, that is, television, radio and print. The ‘digital natives’ are videoblogging, podcasting and blogging about it. Although in essence media of data transfer, visual, audio and text, remain the same, it is the mode of distribution which has become the frontline.

Cyberpunk writer William Gibson says, “I think that technologies are morally neutral until we apply them. It's only when we use them for good or for evil that they become good or evil.” But then a classification of good and evil will need to be defined. Yet in the current context, these definitions are fluid and very camp dependent.

The British band, Iron Maiden11, sums this up in their song ‘When two worlds collide’: Now I can't believe its true and I don't know what to do For the hundredth time I check the declination

Now the fear starts to grow even my computer shows There are no errors in the calculations

This tendency to label the ‘alternate’ internet world bad comes from inertia and ignorance of this world’s working. Yet as the perception of the internet changes, old disputes will come tumbling out of the closet and new ones will emerge as the world evolves.

This is explained in ‘The Cyberpunk Project’12, by Christian Kirtchev in her letter titled ‘Cyberpunk Understood’, “Technology is the Tool, Cyberpunk is the man behind it. The same man that used fire to lighten his cave and cook his meat. The same, who uses the net to communicate and survive, the same, who should not forget the main idea, which surely is not to have or become technology it self.”

The cyberpunk fiction also talks about this; it is transition from the existing world to another one. Like the real world, the decisions that me make today will affect the citizens of this new world. But there is twist, this time the decisions will also affect the old world. Ultimately these decisions will resolve either in the formation of a completely new socio-economic structure or decide whether the human race and its society will become tomorrow’s cosmic dust.

Footnotes: who said what…

Chapter 1: the matrix evolves

1. The Individual within the collective: virtual ideology and the realisation of collective principles, Jan Fernback ,Virtual Culture. 2. What things regulate, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig. 3. Neuromancer, William Gibson. This book is considered the bible of cyberpunk science fiction. 4. Certain Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORGS) encourage users to steal and commit others crimes, even against each other, for example Omerta MMORG. 5. As stated in AOL's Terms of Service (TOS): "As an AOL member you are required to follow our TOS no matter where you are on the Internet." Some of the other terms of service include the following rules: "Language: Mild expletives and nonsexual anatomical references are allowed, but strong vulgar language, crude or explicit sexual references, hate speech, etc., are not. If you see it, report it at Keyword: Notify AOL. Nudity: Photos containing revealing attire or limited nudity in a scientific or artistic context are okay in some places (not all). Partial or full frontal nudity is not okay. If you see it, report it at Keyword: Notify AOL. Sex/Sen suality: There is a difference between affection and vulgarity. There is also a difference between a discussion of the health or emotional aspects of sex using appropriate language, and more crude conversations about sex. The former is acceptable, the latter is not. For example, in a discussion about forms of cancer, the words breast or testicular would be acceptable, but slang versions of those words would not be acceptable anywhere. Violence and Drug Abuse: Graphic images of humans being killed, such as in news accounts, may be acceptable in some areas, but blood and gore, gratuitous violence, etc., are not acceptable. Discussions about coping with drug abuse in health areas are okay, but discussions about or depictions of illegal drug abuse that imply it is acceptable are not." 6. Cyberspaces, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig. 7. This refers to the character Chase in Neuromancer, whose nervous system is damaged after he tries to hack into a cyberspace account that is held by his employers.

Chapter 2: Zaibatsu’s come home

1. The Long Tail, Wired Magazine, Chris Anderson. 2. Technorati, one of the biggest online blog directories. 3. Weird Al is an artist who sings parodies of popular songs. 4. System requirements of Windows Vista as stated by Microsoft Corporation. 5. Zaibotsu: is a Japanese term referring to the "financial cliques," or business conglomerates, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy throughout the Edo and Meiji periods. In cyberpunk the word is used to describe corporations that control large amount of the world’s resources and man power, and remain outside the control of governments. 6. David Brin is a science fiction author and critic. 7. These are corporate controlled cities in Neuromancer, written by William Gibson. 8. Another corporate controlled ‘autonomous area’, in the movie Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. 9&10: 1. Guidelines for SEZ Developers, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 2. Establishment of SEZs, Highlights, Government of Gujarat 3. 4 mistakes and SEZ fuss, Rediff news, TN Ninan.

Chapter 3: Tail between the legs

1. Cyberspaces, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig. 2. & 3 a) ‘Napster’ page on Wikipedia.

b) Intellectual property, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig.

c) The New Freedom Struggle, Digit Magazine, February 2007 issue.

4. Cyberspaces, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig.

5. The New Freedom Struggle, Digit Magazine, February 2007 issue.

6&7 Intellectual Property, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig. 8. Refers to the armies of Ninjas raised by a corporate called ‘Tessier Ashpool’ in the Neuromancer series. 9. The Long Tail, Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine. 10. a) The Long Tail, Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine. b) Wag the Dog, The Economist, July 6 2006 issue. c) Profiting from obscurity, The Economist, May 5 2005 issue.

11. Privacy, Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig.

Chapter 4: from dust to rust

1. Propounded by Intel co-founder Gordon E Moore, states that the number of transistors that can be etched on a silicon chip doubles every 18 months. It means that almost every 18 months a new chip is created that can handle twice the data crunching as its predecessor. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the law now, as chip manufacturers feel that they cannot keep up with the pace of Moore’s law. 2. Computer Myths: the story of scrap, Ravi Agarwal. 3. Is Chennai an e-waste hub? , The Hindu Feb 24 2006. 4. Computer Myths: the story of scrap, Ravi Agarwal. 5. The European Union and the United States label ewaste as hazardous waste. The EU has passed the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), under this regime the manufacturer is responsible for proper disposal of old electronics. 6. The Basel Convention forbids its signatories from exporting or importing hazardous waste. The US has not ratified the convention and considers ewaste export as ‘legal’. 7. Computer Myths: the story of scrap, Ravi Agarwal. 8. Dog Solitude is a waste site, where Zaibatsu dispose their old hardware in Mona Lisa Overdrive. 9. Mona Lisa Overdrive is the third and last book of the Neuromancer series, William Gibson.

Chapter 5: of Addictions and reality 1. Case is one of the main characters in William Gibson’s Neuromancer. 2. Gentry is also a character in William Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive. 3. Morpheous is the captain of a ship in the movie series, ‘The Matrix’. 4. Section 9 is special unit which fights cyber-crime in anime series, ‘Ghost in the Shell’. 5. ‘The Winter Market’ is one of the short stories in ‘Burning Chrome’ by William Gibson. 6. ‘The symptoms of internet addiction’ and ‘Help the addict come back to life’ by Annahita Mukherjee, Times of India, 16 March 2007. 7.& 8.‘IIT Mumbai restricts Internet in hostels’, as reported in the DNA newspaper on 12 March 2007. 9. a. India blocked access to blogs on 13 July 2006, after the government claimed that ‘terrorists’ had used blogs for communication and for planning the July 11th Mumbai train blasts.

b. China allowed Google to release a Chinese version only if Google did not release its blogging service called blogspot, in January 2006.

c. Pakistan blocked blog access on 27th February 2006, after the Danish cartoon controversy. 10. A Shanghai court handed a life sentence in 2005 to an online game player, who stabbed a competitor to death for stealing his cybersword (a virtual prize earned during game-play). 11. Iron Maiden is a British heavy metal band. 12.’The Cyberpunk Project’ is an online repository of cyberpunk work and culture.

Bibliography: Roll of honour

1. The Neuromancer, William Gibson. 2. Mona Lisa Overdrive, William Gibson. 3. Burning Chrome, William Gibson. 4. The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. 5. Cyberpunk, Bruce Bethke. 6. Little Latin Larry, Pat Cadigan. 7. Code 2.0, Lawrence Lessig. 8. Virtual Culture, Identity and communication in Cybersociety. 9. Ghost in the Shell, Anime, Part 1 and 2. 10. The Matrix, Film, Part 1, 2 and 3. 11. Johnny Mnemonic, Film. 12. A Scanner Darkly, Film, Phillip K dick. 13. The Economist, Magazine. 14. Weird Magazine. 15. The Cyberpunk Project, www.project.cyberpunk.ru. 16. Cyberpunk review, www.cyberpunkreview.com. 17. Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.com

Articles used: 1. MMORG 2. Megacoporation 3. Technocracy 4. Simulated reality