Brian J. Callahan wrote:
>Which brings us to the internet and listservs like this.  Doesn't it seem
>likely that as the internet because [becomes] more commercialized,
listservs and other
>means of discussion will become run by these same media corporations?  All
>that's needed is a change in the way payment for use is structured, and
>they've started pushing for that.
>
>Or am I just being paranoid?

I wish you were.  (Oh, and welcome back.)  We need only to look at the early
days of radio when the inventors thought that it would be a great
democratizer. (May I use that neologsim? I know this list is rife with
linguists:)  Everyone, they thought, could talk to everyone else.  Then
along came the concept of "broadcasting"; one sender, lots of listeners.
There was a ton of money to be made and soon the government was in the
business of bestowing the use of airwaves to "responsible" people. With the
internet, I don't think control of content by commercial operations is
inevitable, I think we had better be vigilant and fight the power.  I hope,
twenty years from now, we don't look back on today as the halcyon days of
the internet.
        -Larry Libby

  "Open your eyes
   And look within.
   Are you satisfied
   With the life you're livin' ?"
            Bob Marley