Privatization of the Internet

Talk about privatization of the internet has been rampant. People said it would happen in Canada first (think of it as a testing ground), followed shortly by the U.S. and then the rest of the world.

Canada:
www.reportonbusiness.com...

Background on Privatization of the Public Domain:
mediafilter.org...
www.gcn.com...

Internet regulation is looming near. The governments of the free world can not accept the immense power given to the individual with access to the internet. In the future, the free flow of information may become a threat to the national securities of these governments. They can not risk leaving such a powerful force in the hands of the open public. The Internet could, potentially, and very easily be manipulated to pose a threat to these governments.

The Internet must not succumb to privatization. The governments of North America are on the verge of handing the rights of internet use to private corporations, their only intent: profit. You will see massive internet corporations with their own stocks, board of governors, and investors.

People won't tend to believe this because they think it's a government conspiracy. In fact, the government doesn't want absolute control. They don't care. They're giving the Internet to private companies and investors because they know those people will self-regulate it, and only give Internet access to the customers that can afford it; the customers that are less likely, in the government's perspective, to use the internet for malicious purposes, or the "average folk".

The Internet is a communal resource. Its purpose resonates in all free-thinking men and women. And it is clear.

The major conflict will be a struggle between the open public and the closed public. The open public constitutes those that will have free, unlimited and unregulated, access to all domains, and the entirety of the Internet. The closed public will be those that succumb to the financial benefits of a private Internet enterprise, in the form of investors and share holders. In both cases, the public will control the Internet. In one way, it will be free and open to all. In the other, it will not be free, and due to the disparity and differences in the socioeconomic situation of any country's population, will limit what certain people have access to, and down the line, may be a tool to prevent or eliminate access by certain ethnic, political, advocacy, opposition or revolutionary groups (whichever groups the government is opposed to).

Privatization simply paves the way to the virtual slavery of the people at the bottom of the chain, and gives governments with vested interests (shares) in these private Internet companies the power to limit access to those that the current government opposes.

So yeah, in the end it turns out to be a government conspiracy against the public. So what?

[edit on 18-6-2008 by cognoscente]