More on the burgeoning corporate plot to cage the Internet, and ban it from the rest of us. Unless, of course, we pay exorbitant prices we can ill afford for every online keystroke, while retail giants and Orwellian mega-corporations are awarded "platinum" service. The same phone companies who are illegally violating our privacy by letting Herr Bush spy on us for the sake of The Fatherland are the ones leading the crusade to impose a toll on the Information Superhighway. The proposed iron-hand control of our Internet access will entail even greater abridgements of freedom, such as "deep packet inspection", a method to data-mine all our email transmissions and even curtail certain types of file sharing. A few brave media companies and public interest groups are campaigning to preserve "network neutrality" and keep web access from being privatized, but the telecommunications lobbyists have deep pockets and silver tongues. The greatest danger may be the technological ignorance of our Congressmen. Next election year, vote for a software designer, not an attorney.

"The End Of The Internet? from The Nation