Internet Laws

For the vast wealth of time people spend roaming the internet, one would thing the laws would have caught up by now. Congress, the White House and Big Business (no, this is not going to turn into a socialist rant) have been forcing internet industry into the shape of the traditional meat-world since it's rise to popularity in the 90's, something akin to chopping a little more of your kid's legs off every time he grows.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating an internet without safeguards or regulations (although I'm also not particularly opposed to it, either.) However, taking a step back and finding us immersed in the aftereffects of this, with underhanded corporations fronting phony grassroots movements like this (and ridiculous cartoons like this,) is just plain embarrassing (I know all of that is old news, but I just stumbled across it again and it seems to spark the same nerves as it did at its conception.) No more self-respecting is the music industry, the movie industry, publishing houses, old-school media networks and dozens of other fields that - and here's the sad part to me - stand to make a whole lot of money and make a whole lot more friends if they just took the time to rebuild portions of their business models to suit the virtual terrain.

The internet is a great place to make money - that much had already been established a few trillion times over by the turn of the millennium. However, just like when setting up shop for the first time in a foreign country - you'll probably have to walk around the block a few times, see how things work first, and oh, I don't know, convert some of your money into the local currency. I think, as long as you had something worthwhile for sale (and perhaps therein lies some of the fear,) it wouldn't be that hard to adapt. Diving into legal battles and leaning on the weak shoulders of Congress is just pathetic.