Soon the law might require that your name and address would be attached to your goatse troll, +5 insightful or anything else you care to contribute to any online discussion.
From Reason Magazine, we get the history of the pay-per-listener fees that are now going to kill all Internet Radio. "October 1992, when President George Bush signed the Audio Home Recording Act, which taxed digital audio equipment and media in order to "pay back" copyright holders for their added risk in this brave new digital era. Next, the World Intellectual Property Organization debates of the mid-90s advanced the idea that the United State had to "normalize" its copyright rules to the rest of world. A world that, interestingly enough, lacked either fair use or a First Amendment."
But apparently that is just the tip of the liscensing iceberg."Make no mistake, the death of Net radio is merely a means to an end--the end being the rollback of any notion of fair use of copyrighted digital content. The goal is nothing less than a licensing regime for all digital music that recognizes no ownership rights, fair or otherwise."http://www.reason.com/news/show/121281.html
As many people realize, the existance of a "common enemy" is an excellent political tool for gaining power. It is used the world over, both to polarize the masses and to silence dissent. OneVoiceMovement.org has taken the approach of bypassing the "leaders" and connecting the people to affirm want everyone wants: peace and prosperity. All this from a YouTube Video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34bVcLMrcRs Could a similar approach be used to mend America/Iraqi relations, and diffuse the attack/counterattack cycle?