The New Web and the Old West
February 2003

The Internet has been one of the biggest boons of the past 100 years. Little is written these days about the huge help the 'net has been to research, education and commerce. 

The World Wide Web took on the characteristics of a US national fad when newspapers jumped on the bandwagon seven years ago, some even converting whole sections of their business sections to Internet devotion.

Now comes Foreign Policy magazine, saying the Internet Is Under Siege. The question is: Should broad copyright protections be extended to the 'net -- even though the result might be repression of free speech on the Web, which has depended largely on intermingling of material? 

And should Internet Service Providers be charged with patrolling websites to make sure there is no copyright infringement going on?

Excellent questions. Ones which we hope you, as a 'net user, will think about a little bit.

The Web reminds me of the Old West these days. The good guys may outnumber the bad guys, but the bad guys are tarnishing the whole reputation. 

Meanwhile, the Old West was tamed. So will likely be the Internet.

TRIVIA: Singer Waylon Jennings, who died recently, was supposed to be on a plane that crashed in 1957 and killed one of the great pioneers of rock and roll. Jennings was bumped from the flight. Who was on the plane that crashed?  (answer below)

The National Organization for Women (NOW), for so many years irritating some Americans by the amount of media attention it received, has fallen on disrepute within the news media these days. It is seen by some as a puppet, devoted to lesbian and so-called "bisexual" legal and social issues.

Now, NOW is taking a more grassroots approach toward its agenda. Want to know what big corporations rule the news media that seems to ignore NOW so much these days? Don't go to the media-watchdog sites -- go to the NOW site. 

One can almost see the coming press release: Proof Big Corporations Don't Like to Cover Women's Issues.

TRIVIA ANSWER: Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, legendary Texas musicians of the 1950s, the first stars of the Rock and Roll era to die in plane crashes; inspiration for the oldies song, "American Pie." Jennings was bumped from the flight to make a seat for the Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace").

-- Mike Shiloh