Commercialization Of The Internet

Anonymous Coward writes "For those anti-corporate tech-heads out there, Excite is running an article about how companies are taking over the net through the use of the courts, trademarks and deep pockets. From the article, 'Big corporations have a significant and growing presence on the Internet. In March, just 14 companies controlled 60 percent of users' online time, down from 110 companies two years earlier, Jupiter Media Metrix found.' A final thought from the article, 'This is the last remaining communications medium that allows the small person to participate,' said Barbara Simons, past president of the Association for Computing Machinery. 'To lose that would be a great tragedy.'"

Comments

Corporate oppression uses government enforcement

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

The government is what is stopping free speech and openness on the Internet.

A company may sue you, but it is the government that actually steals your money (at the point of a gun) and gives it to the company.

No government enforcement of corporate whims, no problem.

The corporations are just doing what the law says they need to do (be as competitive as possible). If murder were legal, companies would be obligated to do that if it would benefit their shareholders. Companies aren't allowed to be moral.

The courts have no such excuse. They are the law (effectively, even if not "in theory") and their job according to the Constitution and the natural rights of man is to protect our interests.

They have failed.