We’re in the middle of an epic battle for power in cyberspace. On one side are the traditional, organized, institutional powers such as governments and large multinational corporations. On the other are the distributed: grassroots movements, dissident groups, hackers, and criminals. Initially, the Internet empowered the latter. It gave them a place to coordinate and communicate efficiently, and made them seem invincible. But now, the more traditional institutional powers are winning, and winning big. How these two sides fare in the long term, and the fate of the rest of us who don’t fall into either group, is an open question — and one vitally important to the future of the Internet.   In the Internet’s early days, there was a lot of talk about its “natural laws” — how it would transform traditional power blocks, empower the masses, and spread freedom throughout the world. The international nature of the Internet circumvented national laws. Anonymity was easy. Censorship was impossible. Police were clueless about cybercrime. And bigger changes seemed inevitable. Digital cash would undermine national sovereignty. Citizen journalism would topple traditional media, corporate PR, and political parties. The ease of digital copying would destroy the traditional movie and music industries. Web marketing would allow even the smallest companies to compete against corporate giants. It really would be a new world order.   This was a Utopian vision, but some of it did come to pass. Internet marketing has transformed commerce. The entertainment industries have been transformed by things like MySpace and YouTube, and are now more open to outsiders. Mass media has changed dramatically, and some of the most influential people in the media have come from the blogging world. There are new ways to organize politically and run elections. Facebook and Twitter really did help disrupt governments.   But that is just one side of the Internet’s disruptive character. The Internet has emboldened traditional power as well.   On the corporate side, power is being consolidated, a result of two current trends in computing. First, the rise of cloud computing means that we no longer have control of our data. And second, we are increasingly accessing our data using devices that we have much less control over; iPhones, iPads, Android phones, Kindles, ChromeBooks. Unlike traditional operating systems, these devices are controlled much more tightly by the vendors, who limit what software can be run, what they can do, how they’re updated.