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wether or not the freedom of the Internet jeopardizes the freedom to USE the Internet "

Very eloquent and accurate.

On the other hand, your flame was rather insulting,

Whenever someone moans about "the Feds", I have to ask what the hell are YOU (yes, you) doing about it? Are you expecting someone else to step in and solve these problems?

Who the hell am I? Well for starters I'm an over 40 PHB who lives in the US and has been on the net since the old days, pre 1980. My entire career for the last 20+ years has been the internet, starting long before GUIs.
What the hell am I doing about it? Plenty, you should be as well. All of us should, not just because it's our livelyhood, because it's our privacy and our basic freedoms as well. Personally, I have regular dialog with many elected officials on many different levels. I'm no stranger to the telecom lobbists or in my Representetive or Senators offices on capital hill and my state capital. I support the Electronic Frontier Foundation , Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC), Internet Free Expression Alliance (IFEA), Digital Future Coalition (DFC), and the TRUSTe Privacy Policy Certification Program as well as several others both monetarily and with my time. Do you?

Am I expecting someone else to step in and solve these problems? No, I am involved, are you?

Although you had a good point in your post, I feel the impact of it got lost in the flames, instead of flaming posters on /., try using some of that effort to get the laws and the policy changed, you might be surprised at what one person can do.

Now that we've done all the complaining about the law and the DCMA, next step is to get involved.Here's how, Constructive communication to the folks who can make a difference beats whining every time.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
US House of Representatives
US Senate
Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC)
Internet Free Expression Alliance (IFEA)
Digital Future Coalition (DFC)
TRUSTe Privacy Policy Certification Program

Electronic Frontier Foundation
US House of Representatives
US Senate
Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC)
Internet Free Expression Alliance (IFEA)
Digital Future Coalition (DFC)
TRUSTe Privacy Policy Certification Program

Money buys the time of people who stay in touch with (1) the issues and (2) the people who write the laws/regulations/rules, etc. It also buys the legal talent that can affect the outcome of pivotal court cases. IMHO it is really hard to consistently have your voice heard without an organized presence on the ground in Washington. Of course, it also helps if you vote and write letters to your representative. You can write to your representative here.

There may be existing organizations who already mostly reflect the point of view of the /. community. Does anyone know anything about EFF or IFEA? What other organizations have shown that they can be effective? Recall the Internet Alliance was crowing about their role in the DOC/DOJ report that concluded no new laws were needed to combat internet crime. The members of the IA are spending money to be organized and stay on top of "their" issues.

As the article above mentions, the /. community has money -- that money can give it a voice in the legislative and judicial processes. What are the /. issues? Is there an important core? Who can effectively get the /. community's message across?

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has released "Filters & Freedom: Free Speech Perspectives on Internet Content Controls". The report is a collection of articles from anti-censorship organizations such as Peacefire, the ACLU, and the Internet Free Expression Alliance. The report is available from Amazon.