Big Media (and Big Government) Want Us To Just Be Consumers

soc_econ.pngThe thing about seizures like the FBI seizure of MegaUpload on Thursday is this:

Big Media (and Big Government) Want Us To Just Be Consumers

Think about it. Megaupload’s site said: “The fact is that the vast majority of mega’s Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue.”

The government (and Big Media) claim that all providers should be able to verify every link and uploaded bit of content. This is *insane* (and, by the way, kills Dropbox, Min.us, Instagram, and every other cloud-based service you use), but worse, inherently turns us all into nothing but consumers.

And I don’t mean this as some high and mighty “ideals” bullcrap. This is a matter of pure practicality. Moderating comments on popular blogs can be a full-time gig. So how the hell are smaller operators and creators supposed to co-exist?

Answer: We can’t.

The only “safe” operators on the internet will be Big Media again. Remember the days when AOL and CompuServe were the only games in town? When Yahoo was a “portal”?

Yeah, neither does the 20-year-old who I just asked. Why don’t you see Big Media as a portal anymore?

Because a free Internet is better than any corporate walled-garden corporate experience.

This isn’t about piracy, folks. This is Big Media trying to use Big Government trying to shove us back to 1995. Back when Big Media was the only game in town.

Big Media’s walled garden lost in the free market over a decade ago. And they want those profits back. And these big corporations are using Big Government to subvert the free market.

Tea Partier, Socialist, Libertarian, Libertine – no matter your political persuasion, there’s something here for all of us to hate. And with damn good reason.

Stay with this folks. It looks like the supposed “hyperbole” you heard before was actually an understatement.

The welcome screen from my old BBS

I’ve been a content creator for a long time.  Recently, far more of us have been creating content – whether at Wikipedia, or commenting on blogs and forming communities (like at Whatever), or in Second Life, or forums online.

It doesn’t matter where your digital home is – you’re not just a consumer anymore.  You haven’t been for years, and Big Media still hasn’t figured out how to deal with that.

Other than to try to force you back into last century.