Battleangel

The U.S. federal government wants backdoors to tap into university networks all over the nation, starting next year. The 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, as outrageous as it is even in its most “limited” form, it also has to extend to university networks as well. Needless to say, this opens up a Pandora’s box of academic thought control, loss of integrity, security risks in terms of hackers and staggering hardware costs that will undoubtedly be levied on the American student who is already paying monstrous tuition costs.

As for the more generic application: FCC approves Net-wiretapping taxes and so apparently all Internet data and phone use will have to pass via government controlled hubs which can collect any sort of “incriminating evidence” or whatever is needed to stamp out dissent and cripple the dangerously free Internet. This has obviously been a dream of telcos and the powers that be since the moment they realized they had failed to realize the potential of the wired world and let the people gain an unfettered and frighteningly democratic voice. Now you can’t have that obviously.

In the meantime, U.S. politician Joe Barton, paid for and owned by the AT&T, says that net neutrality is “kind of like pornography: You know it when you see it.” I certainly know corruption and control of the public mind when I see it though.

In the near future, the content you’ll most likely want and anything not approved by big brother will come at a cost, while the propaganda will be free, and the government will have you on file for requesting seditious material. It’s damn lucky one doesn’t live in the U.S. then, but that doesn’t mean one can afford to get cocky. Europe for instance may not be quite as far gone, but we are getting there and fast.