Technologists agree with Clinton, say Internet freedom wins in long run

Here's what technologists say about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech on Internet freedom: she's right.

Not only because they agree that cyber hackers should be punished and that censorship is bad. Sec Clinton is correct, they say, that censorship won't succeed in completely clamping down systems and preventing the exchange of information over the Web.

They are only temporary measures and, with just a few exceptions -- North Korea comes to mind -- won't ultimately win. The revelation from post-election demonstrations in Iran last summer was that people on the ground found ways around network censors to circulate pictures, videos and Tweets to the rest of the world, says Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter. During the Iranian New Year, a video greeting from President Obama was circulated underground in Tehran and went viral.