Prof. Jonathan Zittrain has responded to the enormous outpouring of Groklaw reader comments to his paper on The Generative Internet with an FAQ posted back at Groklaw.

For instance: wondering how Blackberries and other mobile devices fit into the picture of JZ’s argument about the PC lock-down future we face? Here’s an exchange that picks up on that thread. Z writes: “This is a serious challenge to my argument that after years of general purpose PC primacy, the momentum is shifting in favor of limited-use devices. The next few generations of information appliances will be telling, I agree. My sense, though, is that these devices are less products than they are services. Mess too much with an iPod, and the next iPod update (needed, of course, to work with the next gen iTunes music store, and to coordinate with one’s Nike sneakers so that one can upload running times to the iPod) will say, ‘Sorry, this iPod’s functionality has been modified, and it will no longer work with iTunes.’ Or it will simply overwrite one’s own adaptations.”

Also worth reading: a cool post from CALIopolous on JZ’s article and its Groklaw reaction, complete with a picture of a blender.

(A curious side-note: the article itself, on SSRN and in the Harvard Law Review, continues to climb the SSRN download rankings, having just broken into the top 1000 articles.)