] Author Howard Rheingold believes the freedom of
] technologists to innovate is under attack as never
] before.

] "They would very much like to get us back to the days
] when there were three radio stations and one telephone
] company," he said. "We're going to have to fight to
] remain users and not be turned back into consumers."

] "Incumbents (are) using their political or economic power
] to push back or thwart newcomers," he said.

] After the talk, Rheingold said, "An era is coming to an
] end. Geeks and consumers are under assault. We really
] have to organize to protect our rights."

] Esther Dyson, former chair of ICANN and a noted
] technology impresario, said she agreed with Rheingold's
] thesis "in spades."

] "Technologists always say they just code, they don't make
] laws," she said. "But they should be going to Congress.
] Our rights are in jeopardy."

] "You can't change the law unless you participate in the
] lawmaking process," Doctorow said. "Technology is
] relentlessly lowering the barrier to entry in that
] process."

Wired News: Futurist Fears End of Innovation

] "It was a grand and glorious picture that had a lot of
] people watching," Banfield said, "and a lot of
] advertisers excited about cable TV news. But it wasn't
] journalism, because I'm not sure Americans are hesitant
] to do this again -- to fight another war, because it
] looked to them like a courageous and terrific endeavor."

] "As a journalist, I have been ostracized just from
] going on television and saying, 'Here's what the
] leaders of Hezbollah, a radical Moslem group, are
] telling me about what is needed to bring peace to
] Israel,'" she said. "And, 'Here's what the Lebanese
] are saying.' Like it or lump it, don't shoot the
] messenger, but that's what they do."

MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield: Media filtered realities of war 04/24/03

] A U.S district court on Thursday ruled for a second time
] that Verizon Communications must give up the identity of
] an anonymous Internet subscriber accused of swapping
] music files online.

Life is about to get very tough for the ISPs..

Verizon has 14 days to ID kazaa user

Netscan is a research project of Microsoft's where they map
Usenet. They don't look inside any message bodies. They don't care
WHAT you say, but they care about the patterns of how people
participate in Usenet newsgroups.

MSR Netscan - Usenet Social Accounting Search Engine

] If they don't fight for their right to exist, independent
] ISPs soon will be replaced by huge cable television and
] telephone companies supported by misguided FCC
] regulations, according to Kushnick, who addressed an
] audience Friday at ISPCON, an annual gathering for
] Internet service providers.
]
] Extinction is not the only trouble bedeviling ISPs.
] Owners and workers say they are being forced to turn into
] Net nannies, cops and snoops by the cavalcade of
] anti-terrorist and copyright-protection legislation
] that's been passed in the last two years.
]
] Kushnick's speech was greeted with much somber
] head-nodding and occasional bursts of approving applause
] from an audience consisting mostly of ISP owners and
] employees.

Wired News: Indie ISPs Fight for Survival

] A federal judge in Los Angeles has handed a stunning
] court victory to file-swapping services Streamcast
] Networks and Grokster, dismissing much of the record
] industry and movie studios' lawsuit against the two
] companies.

] "Defendants distribute and support software, the
] users of which can and do choose to employ it for
] both lawful and unlawful ends," Wilson wrote in his
] opinion, released Friday. "Grokster and StreamCast
] are not significantly different from companies that
] sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of
] which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."

Wow! Good news!

Judge: File-swapping tools are legal | CNET News.com

] The Baby Bells may have bilked consumers out of billions
] by inflating the cost of their networks. Regulators seem
] content to overlook the matter.

(Comments flynn23)

um, Hello? People have been saying this for years! When is DC going to wake up and finally JUST SAY NO to the telecom lobby? At what point do we stop paying the universal service fee, so that the Bells can fatten their margins and stranglehold the market instead of providing Grandma Jones out in the country with affordable service?

Shortchanged by the Bells

Its a bear, and it shits prime numbers..

Alkulukuja Paskova Karhu - The Prime Number Shitting Bear

] PhreakNIC 7 dates have been set for October 24-26, 2003!

PhreakNIC 7 :: Nashville, TN

] Instead, we hereby invite O'Reilly to debate Kamiya,
] one-on-one, via e-mail. Let the unedited exchange become
] part of the public record on the Net. Let O'Reilly leave
] the home-turf advantage of his studios. Let's see how he
] fares when he can't simply yank the mike from a guest who
] disagrees with him too articulately.

Salon calls out O'Reilly..

Salon.com | Kamiya vs. O'Reilly