Greedy Fucking Bastards

You know what, I really am getting sick to death of this minority of assholes ruining everything.

You see, the internet is awesome, and do you know why it's awesome? Because it's a totally level playing field. Because the internet is a level playing field I can write a blog that's read all over the world, people can run businesses from their homes or start their own internet based TV shows, radio shows or art galleries.

But you know what? Those same greedy-assed motherfuckers want to kick over the game board, flat out ruin the internet…just so they can make themselves rich. In my opinion that's like patenting written language and refusing to let anyone read or write anything without lining your pockets.

In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the bill Time Warner tried to sneak through a few days ago (that was luckily stopped in it's tracks thanks to freepress.net) and the 'telecoms package' that's getting decided in Europe today.

In a nutshell, here's what they're trying to do. Apparently paying around sixty bucks a month for internet access isn't enough. What the cable companies want to do is decide what you can and can't see on the internet and charge you extra for things that aren't basic web surfing and email.

So you'd get your usual sixty dollar bill, but if you want to use internet telephony like skype or vonage, that'll be an extra ten bucks please. Oh, you listen to streaming radio or want to watch streaming movies through a service like NetFlix? That's another ten dollars. What's that? You crochet quilts and sell them online? They you want the business package.

Basically, they want to turn internet access into a cable TV type of service where you pay a basic fee plus a lot more for any 'extras'…extras being the normal day to day things we take for granted like streaming music through iTunes etc.

In short, what this whole thing is about is a group of greedy motherfuckers who didn't have the foresight or vision to understand what the internet would mean and buried their heads in the sand when the internet was taking off, and now they've suddenly realized that a lot of people are making a lot of money…so they want to destroy everything the internet is so they can line their pockets. Oh, and just to be clear on that, they're already making billions, they just want more like the greedy fuckwits they are.

This honestly scares the shit out of me because at this point I'm really starting to understand just how bottomless human greed can be. How people will fuck anyone and everyone over to put a little more money in their own pockets.

The thing is, it's really easy to just shrug and say "Ah, it'll never happen."…but if that's your attitude, get ready to be telling your kids in ten years how you used to be able to send an email for free and could look at websites from all over the world instead of just the few hundred corporate sites that are available now.

Then again, why am I even bothering? 99% of the people who will read this will say something along the lines of "Well, I don't have an online store/use skype/listen to podcasts. It doesn't effect me!"…and then the greatest communication system ever created becomes another corporate controlled system for delivering advertisements. Fuck creativity, fuck competition and fuck the little guy. As long as some douchebag who doesn't even understand how the internet works gets a massive 'campaign contribution' and the head of Time Warner makes fifty million this year instead of forty.