http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/zkp/disappea.txt
from: Mediafilter 
date: January 1996




The Disappearence of Public Space on the Net


The Internet was started in the 1970's by the U.S. Defense Department 
as a communications tool and is now being bought out by I.B.M., M.C.I. and 
other megaCorporations.  April, 1995 marked the closing of the National 
Science Foundation's part of the internet, and signaled the beginning of 
the end of the publicly funded computer network infrastructure.

This race toward "privatization" is taking place behind closed doors and 
in corporate boardrooms, well outside the sphere of public debate, and 
threatens the very existence of free speech over electronic networks.  
Just as shopping malls are private property, where "freedom of speech" 
means that the owners of the property have the right to silence those 
with whom they disagree, often using their own 
<a href="http://MediaFilter.org/MFF/CAQ/CAQ54p.police.html"> private 
security personnel</a> (rent-a cops), the 
private spaces on the internet will follow the same model.  This is not 
just paranoia--there is already historical precident to support this 
claim.  In 1990, Prodigy, an online service owned jointly by Sears and 
IBM decided to charge haigher rates for customers sending large 
volumes of email.  When users posted notices protesting the limits on 
the amount of speech, and sent email to Prodigy's online advertisers 
threatening boycotts, Prodigy read and censored the messages and 
cancelled the users' accounts.  A spokesman for Prodigy wrote an arro-
gant opinion piece in the New York (lies of our) Times stating that the 
company would continue restricting speech as it saw fit, including 
criticisms of the company.

The first course of action, of course, is to boycott the large corporate 
net providers such as America OnLine, Compu$erve, Prodigy, E-World, 
and other "shopping malls" on the net.  Support local, independent 
internet providers who give real internet access and do not restrict 
usage.
Encourage others to cancel their accounts on the "malls" and to sign up 
with independent providers or get an account thorough a university 
(students and professors usually get free accounts on university 
servers).
Some may resist giving up the "convenience" of these services because 
it's often more difficult to set up "real" internet access, and requires a 
bit more time to learn how to use it effectively.  However, these should 
be more reasons to boycott the megamalls, who would rather keep you 
ignorant--shopping and playing games--than encourage you use your 
brains.

Participate in and support the growing number of independent sites on 
the World wide Web.  Create sites and link to other independent sites.  
Take control of the web and create content--independent worldwide 
distribution is now in our hands.  Establish a strong presence and make 
your voices heard before what is left of the public space on the internet 
is legislated away by the cronies of the Christian Right in government 
and the multinational corporations who want to create a global "virtual 
megaMall."

Paul Garrin
MediaFilter
http://MediaFilter.org


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