We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
I agree with the sentiment of this article, but only to a degree.<p>I recommend anyone interested in this to read Open Standards and the Digital Age, by Andrew Russel. The book is a partial refutation of the idea of an &#x27;open web&#x27; using historical examples, the most shocking being the failure of open and democratic methods to build an open Internet standard versus the success of Serf and Kahn inventing TCP&#x2F;IP in a closed and corporate environment, funded by the military. The reality is that some systems critical to the operation of the Internet, such as DNS, are highly centralized, un-open, un-private and un-free, or at least when compared with cyberlibertarian expectations of how the Internet should be. It also addresses other perversions of &#x27;open&#x27;, such as the irony that some of FLOSS&#x27;s biggest customers are megacorps like Apple and Microsoft, who up until recently contributed way less back than what they took.<p>I don&#x27;t think the web was &#x27;stolen&#x27; from &#x27;us&#x27;, I think people just don&#x27;t realize how controlling it was before. They&#x27;re mistaking an epiphany for an actual loss of freedom that may or may not have been there in the first place. We need to fight for a free and open Internet, but let&#x27;s not kid ourselves with inaccurate and misleading language.