Is an Internet clampdown coming? Very possibly -- unless Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Web hosting companies begin to behave more responsibly.

Pointing to the growing trends of online fraud, copyright infringement, hacker attacks, and spam, Jonathan Zittrain, co­director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at ­Harvard Law School, says law enforcement, government, and the online industry itself will eventually foist upon us a more ­"battened-down" Internet -- one that's more secure, perhaps, but also far less flexible and amenable to creativity and commercial opportunity. In other words, the technology promise of the Internet is under serious threat. This month, Technology Review adds another item to Zittrain's list of the Internet's dysfunctions: its increasingly effective exploitation by terrorist organizations.

The several facets of this deeply troubling trend are described in "Terror's Server." Law enforcement officials are increasingly worried that online fraud is funding terrorist atrocities: Imam Samudra, convicted mastermind of the Bali disco bombing of October 2002, has penned a jailhouse memoir that offers a primer on online fraud for his fellow terrorists. More broadly, jihadists are making good use of the Net, with websites that recruit members, solicit funds, and promote violence. Finally, the Internet is enabling a ghastly new spectacle: tens of millions -- perhaps hundreds of millions -- of people around the world have gone online to watch struggling hostages in Iraq have their heads sawed off.