As I read an article about the arrest in the Netherlands of a computer hacktivist, Anonymous and Operation: Payback, and an attack on the attackers, my wife said to me “I can’t follow it.” I replied, “Well, it’s the first computer war in history.” Actually, the Gulf War is sometimes given that description. But this feels more like the opening battle in a prolonged war. So I say it’s the First Internet War in history. It’s the People vs. the U.S. Government. The initial fronts are Sweden, Amazon, PayPal, MasterCard, and so on. It’s a war on the internet and being fought over the internet and internet freedom. It’s a war over freedom of communication. In my opinion, this is a huge news event, on the order of Watergate. It will go on for a long time. Like all wars, it will transmute over time and go into all kinds of unexpected directions. Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have begun the First Internet War.

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