
              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7  Num. 81
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE INTERNET
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In  CN  7.72  the  "Privatization  of  the  Internet"  story  was
mentioned.  According to  *The  1996  Project Censored Yearbook*,
the Internet  "was  essentially  sold  last  year.   The  federal
government  has  been  gradually transferring the backbone of the
U.S. portion of the global  computer network to companies such as
IBM and MCI as part of a larger plan to privatize cyberspace."
 
Let's  see...   We  pay  taxes  out  of  our  pockets;  the  U.S.
government uses that money to build the Internet; the  government
then gives the Internet to big corporations; then finally the big
corporations  start  charging  us  more  and  more bucks for them
letting us use "their" Internet!
 
This past week on C-Span they had Ralph Nader speaking to a crowd
in an auditorium somewhere.  And one thing that Mr. Nader brought
up was how we pay  taxes  that  help keep the universities going;
the universities conduct research on drugs; the  results  of  the
research  go  to  major  pharmaceutical  giants; then finally the
major pharmaceutical giants charge  us  big  bucks to use "their"
drugs!
 
Yesterday,  in the local paper, they had an article about how the
University  of  Illinois  has  developed  new  software  they are
calling "Vosaic"; Vosaic, "a name derived from another popular UI
product, Mosaic -- makes sending  video  across  the  Internet  a
breeze,"  says  Julie Wurth, News-Gazette staff writer.  This new
technology  is   slated   to   be   marketed   by  Digital  Video
Communications, based in Chicago and Los Angeles.   The  question
arises:   since  the  American  people  have  helped pay for this
already, they're not going to have to pay again, are they??
 
But the point I have in this is that old concern of, How are they
going to shut down free expression on Internet?  They are working
at it from  "liberal"  Billy  Clinton's  angle  of his tremendous
concern about "indecency."  Another attack could be  coming  from
the  corporados,  closely aligned with the U.S. government if not
in fact the actual puppet masters  of  same.  I see in the May 6,
1996 *Newsweek* (p.  12) that, indeed, "[Internet]  Traffic  once
carried  on the backbone has been transferred to private networks
owned by  companies  like  MCI  and  Sprint..."   (See  also *The
Nation*, 07/03/95, "Keeping On-Line Speech Free:  Street  Corners
in Cyberspace," by Andrew L. Shapiro.)
 
You  know  these  corporados:   first  they  give  America  their
stunning  architecture  --  McDonalds,  Arbys,  K-Mart,  etc. now
blighting the landscape -- and next they give us the shaft.   How
soon  before  they  start charging us for what we've already paid
for?  How soon  before  "some  people"  don't  get  as  good of a
connection to "their" Internet?
 
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

