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MSN Cuts Unmonitored Chatrooms Around the Globe
letxa2000 writes "According to MSNBC, Microsoft will be shutting down its unmonitored chat services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and much of Latin America on October 14th--the day before MSN Messenger will lock out many 3rd party clients. Interestingly, the European manager of MSN is quoted as saying 'This is a decision based upon consumer experiences, child protection and our strategic investment to build up MSN Messenger.' It's starting to become clear that Microsoft is starting up the IM wars again and that the 3rd-party lockout indeed isn't so much about security as it is about marketshare."
"If Microsoft discovers its services are being abused and finds that it can at least control or stop that abuse from continuing, don't you think they'd want to try it? And yes, I fully realise that this argument can easily be transmuted against Linux users or anyone else MS doesn't like. But in this case, again, I have to ask: what would you do?"
Does it really make sense to make a public service a payed service in the US, and to take it down completely in other parts of the world? What about the people using this service in those 28 countries, are they all spammers and porn-mongers?
The article hints at something interesting:
"It's a signal that some of the joyful early days of the Internet have moved on a bit. Chat was one of those things that was a bit hippyish. It was free and open. But a small minority have changed that for everyone. It's very sad," Sutton said.
It is really an interesting question on how far you're willing to go taking away freedoms/openness from your customers because a small minority does something illegal/unwanted with it. Sutton is playing the 9/11 card very cheaply, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read this. Are you really buying into this?
Honestly, this is just a sign of things to come, and fits right into Microsoft's business model, worldview, and plan for the world. The new world order is one in which corporations enforce their own censorship, violate rights, and pass their own laws without any pesky constitution or democratic process to get in their way. Bill Gates bought into the cyberpunk future and made sure he was at the helm of the most powerful corporation in the world therefore.
Now Microsoft is in a position where no government in the world dares to challenge their authority. Even Bush, who is ready to fight the whole world and cares not one whit for international laws or what Europe has to say is afraid to do anything about Microsoft.
The only hope is to undermine them through the very capitalist process itself. But even then we have not resolved the issue that governments have ceased to govern and protect the rights of their citizens, that civil law has replaced criminal law, and that multinational corporations are indeed the new government, beholden to no one, and ready to stand as our new masters.