While it's disappointing, it's not exactly a surprise. Doctorow's been talking about "the war on general computation" for years. For about the same length of time, I've been saying that governments would eventually seek a monopoly over computation in the same way as they currently hold a monopoly over violence: it doesn't disappear or become physically impossible, but it requires registration, licensing and reporting, along with suitable punishments to deter those who would seek to usurp the monopoly.