In the wake of the Wikileak document dump the FTC has decided that it is time to take away the internet punch bowl. The agency's chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced Wednesday that he circulated draft rules he says will "preserve the freedom and openness of the internet." No statement could better reflect the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama administration policies.
The last time anyone checked the net was pretty free and pretty open. It’s almost as if this move to preserve freedom and openness is in reality an attempt to control. The statement is made in part from a conditional response embedded in my personality and reinforced by Ronald Reagan’s quote the nine scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Help usually means regulations, when the government gets to bat last.
Think about the internet. The AP style book recommends capitalizing the first letter in the word. Following this lead, other media types to regurgitate the spelling and it has crept into word processing programs and Webster’s big book. Word processing programs also use capitalized first letters in the phrase world wide web. So obviously the techno-savvy treat HTTP-isms with respect and the position of high status.
The internet accounts for over $300 billion dollars of the US economy. Companies like Cisco, Google, Microsoft and eBay have created products and services previously unknown by anyone on planet Earth. The Internet has allowed companies like Apple, Hewlett-Packard and AT&T to redefine their business models.
Individual investors have grown wealthy through owning stock and mutual funds that have invested in the creation and buildout of the internet. Individuals using the internet have created fortunes buying and selling everyday products that they created, inherited or acquired through criminal activity.
Stop me if you heard this before, but the internet has changed everything. So the last 15 years, since Microsoft introduced Windows 95 to the Rolling Stones singing Start Me Up, why would anyone think the government needs to preserve freedom and openness?
Attempts to control and limit the internet are easily dismissed as commercially unviable. Look at AOL, that is if you can find it. When Time Warner merged with the online business, they took the name AOL/Time Warner and the ticker symbol AOL. Analysts felt the movie “You’ve Got Mail” was the ultimate game changer for the web. (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were not communicating via e-mail, they were communicating via instant messaging). AOL is the technology equivalent of the Studebaker or Chevrolet Volt, silly unwanted and unused.
The American people need to invoke the spirit of radical post-60s militant feminism. The type of extreme behavior that women displayed when men tried to open doors for them. There was an angry scowl followed by “I’m not helpless, I can do it myself”. This mentality needs to be applied to internet usage. We don’t need help, we need common sense and choices.
Gov is not what is defined in the texts, they are a biz and the biggest of them all, AND they carry the stick. . . the .Gov will take their Corleone share and increase it more and more at our expense, as per usual. . .
ReplyDeleteInvoking Don Vito is sadly far too true.
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