[SGVLUG] Stiring the pot: online freedom ?

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

> -----Original Message----- Of matti
> 
> The "users" will need to push back and demand
> some basic rights.
> ( by users I really mean denizens, by us )
> 
> Seriously, problematic to our constitutional
> rights as we move online

Shouldn't that be:

   [this is] seriously problematic to Americans 
   who believe that their constitution applies
   to the global medium known as the Internet

> freedom of speech, assembly, freedom vs
> unreasonable search and seizure .. granted
> those are rights the government SHOULD not
> be infringing on - but what happens when
> the corporation controls the commons?? i.e.
> imagine the city you live in is completely 
> owned/controlled by ONE company, while the adjacent
> likewise, etc... 

Ahh, the old "company town" concept -- anyone want to work in a coal
mine?
 
> honestly, this is basically what the internet
> is. It is an corporate owned highway system
> connecting various corporate owned cities.
> 
> Corporations only want us as consumers, not
> "real people" with "real issues/beliefs"

There is a way around this: run your own server -- "be your own city" as
it were...

You might run into the issue of the "highway department" not keeping up
the roadwork that leads to your "city" [or worse, setting up roadblocks
and detours...]