The Future of The Internet And How To Stop It
By Jonathan Zittrain
Penguin, £20/Yale University Press, $30

If asked to pick a favourite piece of consumer technology, who wouldn't choose their iPod over their PC? It does the one thing it is designed to do - play digital music - very well. Not like the PC, which may be endlessly adaptable but is not optimised for any single use, is difficult for the non-technical person to control, and may be exposed to spam, viruses and intrusive cyber-criminals.