Why the internet will die

[CovertOP]

The main theme here is just that individual private citizens simply can't be given the power to speak out, potentially on a global level to other citizens. Most recently we have seen the effects of censorship of the Chinese internet. At work we are regulated first by Websense or Surfcontrol to prevent us from "unauthorized" nonbusiness use of their computer systems. Ya, well Ok, so that means most people don't have a good enough work ethic to actually do work while at work? Well, why not? We always fail to address the cause of a problem. So instead, my pension gets bypassed because they NEED a 50,000 program to tell me what I can and can not access.
Just today I tried to e-mail a political board and the e-mail came back...OK.. I now have to knock this off too? Even if it's lunch hour?
Back in 2003 Windows Palladium contained truely evil provisions and capabilities that you can still research today know as Digital Rights Management. I have not searched lately but I am sure the consortium of assholes and their version of the net is not the open free structure we have now.
Every day though I think powerful people in high places are regreting the changes the net has brought about. Now they are after political boards, bloggers. They want to regulate.
WHAT HAPPENED TO DEREGULATION assholes? Don't you just hate people so hypocrytical they don't make an sense at all?
Then AOL and other major ISPs have their own commercial crap vision for the net. Ads you can't turn off, tracking your every mouseclick. Do we remember newsgoups being free? Do we realize the current lack of real free information on the net compared to what it was even two years ago?

Bottom line, it's just too powerful a tool to put in the hands of a prole.

[varkam]

1. I think Al Gore spoke out on this issue recently

He said that the internet is one of the last forms of a free exchange of ideas, which is essential to a Democracy. With Television and Radio, it's pretty much a one way conversation. The internet represents our last refuge, and yeah, the powers that be are beginning to realize the vast untapped power of the internet - and of course they want to control it. That's why we need to fight tooth and nail to have it remain as free as it can be.

[Just Me]

2. Well, when "they" talk about "freedom", maybe they really mean,....

,..."freedom" to be oppressed and exploited and controlled and invaded. Maybe, that's what "they" really mean when they push that "freedom" button. Maybe.

[annabanana]

3. freedom to choose Coke or Pepsi...

that's all folks....

[JuniperLea]

5. Finally!

Something Coke and Pepsi drinkers can agree on!

[CovertOP]

7. But

never, ever diet anything.
My body always told me that stuff was as good and healthy for you as drinking battery acid.

[JuniperLea]

4. Code word

I fear you are correct.

[sproutster]

6. We can always go "low tech"

Bring back the dial in servers. :) Go modem, pay your phone bill. ...This depresses me because I know it will happen.

I'm bummed, yesterday I realized what happened in Germany, and how it happened.

I feel invisible, I see, I hear, but it feels like no one else can.

[CovertOP]

8. I too

know far too much.
Knight of the Fifth Veil you see.

[harpo]

13. yep...they can't stop us...F them

[Habibi]

16. Er, and there's still print media

You can learn a lot by spending your lunch hour with a book. Or a magazine. Or newspaper. Lots of alternative press still around.

[Katherine Brengle]

18. lol, when i think "low-tech" it's hand-cranked printing press, lol...

[CatholicEdHead]

9. There are only two or three major nodes that need to be shut down

to take out the entire international network. LANs will still work but any WAN acess to remote servers will go down.

[CovertOP]

12. Ya but

what about all the lines into the underground bunkers at Ft. Meade mining all of our data? How can we take them out?

[CatholicEdHead]

14. The way it is designed it is all or nothing with those nodes

otherwise the network data will go by a different path.

Though I do expect the military network to be self contained to still have all the connectivity that they need.

[maveric]

10. They'll use the porn and "What about the Children" issues. As well as...

the "Terraists might use it to attack us...", line.
I have a feeling that bu$h will remain in office after 2008 and after another controlled attack on US soil, it'll be full-blown police state.

Perhaps Costa Rica will still be online?

[CovertOP]

11. First

they came for the pornographers, but I was not a pornographer so I said nothing.....

[gilpo]

15. This genie is out of the bottle

They would have to do something totally drastic to shut this down. Not that I think that it is past Them, but I think we have hit a point of no return. Remember, they would have to shut down Free Republik, too.

[converted_democrat]

17. I agree with you.. The people that are currently in control having been

planning this (the US) takeover for decades.. The one thing they didn't plan on was the internet being the tool that it is today.. The net' is the only thing stopping them from what they want.. Some how, some way, they will put an end to it.. It's the only thing that stands in their way...

[soothsayer]

19. Feh, they're already working on an Interplanetary Internet.

I ain't kidding! http://computer.howstuffworks.com/interplanetary-internet.htm

[Taxloss]

20. Yep, that's what killed off the printing press and the photocopier.

Personally, I blame Martin Luther.

Information will always proliferate - the internet can't be uninvented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat