     The following is brought to you thanks, in part, to the kind 
     assistance of the fine folks at Cornell University.
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     THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE INTERNET
     =================================
      
     In  CN  7.72  the  "Privatization  of  the  Internet"  story  was
     mentioned.  According to  *The  1996  Project Censored Yearbook*,
     the Internet  "was  essentially  sold  last  year.   The  federal
     government  has  been  gradually transferring the backbone of the
     U.S. portion of the global  computer network to companies such as
     IBM and MCI as part of a larger plan to privatize cyberspace."
      
     Let's  see...   We  pay  taxes  out  of  our  pockets;  the  U.S.
     government uses that money to build the Internet; the  government
     then gives the Internet to big corporations; then finally the big
     corporations  start  charging  us  more  and  more bucks for them
     letting us use "their" Internet!
      
     This past week on C-Span they had Ralph Nader speaking to a crowd
     in an auditorium somewhere.  And one thing that Mr. Nader brought
     up was how we pay  taxes  that  help keep the universities going;
     the universities conduct research on drugs; the  results  of  the
     research  go  to  major  pharmaceutical  giants; then finally the
     major pharmaceutical giants charge  us  big  bucks to use "their"
     drugs!
      
     Yesterday,  in the local paper, they had an article about how the
     University  of  Illinois  has  developed  new  software  they are
     calling "Vosaic"; Vosaic, "a name derived from another popular UI
     product, Mosaic -- makes sending  video  across  the  Internet  a
     breeze,"  says  Julie Wurth, News-Gazette staff writer.  This new
     technology  is   slated   to   be   marketed   by  Digital  Video
     Communications, based in Chicago and Los Angeles.   The  question
     arises:   since  the  American  people  have  helped pay for this
     already, they're not going to have to pay again, are they??
      
     But the point I have in this is that old concern of, How are they
     going to shut down free expression on Internet?  They are working
     at it from  "liberal"  Billy  Clinton's  angle  of his tremendous
     concern about "indecency."  Another attack could be  coming  from
     the  corporados,  closely aligned with the U.S. government if not
     in fact the actual puppet masters  of  same.  I see in the May 6,
     1996 *Newsweek* (p.  12) that, indeed, "[Internet]  Traffic  once
     carried  on the backbone has been transferred to private networks
     owned by  companies  like  MCI  and  Sprint..."   (See  also *The
     Nation*, 07/03/95, "Keeping On-Line Speech Free:  Street  Corners
     in Cyberspace," by Andrew L. Shapiro.)
      
     You  know  these  corporados:   first  they  give  America  their
     stunning  architecture  --  McDonalds,  Arbys,  K-Mart,  etc. now
     blighting the landscape -- and next they give us the shaft.   How
     soon  before  they  start charging us for what we've already paid
     for?  How soon  before  "some  people"  don't  get  as  good of a
     connection to "their" Internet?
