Putting network specifications behind subscription paywalls gives the NSA and other surveillance agencies a decisive advantage against the freedom of the Internet. That is the unescapable conclusion of the recent KRACK vulnerability.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a lot of debate about paywalls lately \u2013 not the least about whether so-called \u201cjournalism\u201d of mainstream media is supposed to survive, as it consumes much more resources than the amateurs who are often (but not always) doing a better job at actual journalism. However, paywalls are controversial in more contexts than just mainstream legacy media \u2013 they\u2019re also highly controversial with Elsevier\u2019s lockup of research papers (more in piece on this a little later), locking up building codes and similar that laws refer to (do you need to pay to read the law?), and for technical specifications that concern security.<\/p>\n