There has been a lot of noise recently about various legal and quasi-legal attempts to hand control of the internet over to corporate interests all in the loudly proclaimed causes of protecting intellectual property and saving the children. This is, of course, pure horseshit.

I’ve embedded here two different documents for you to peruse at your leisure.

The first is an essay from Professor Lawrence Lessig, written in 2001 yet wholly applicable to the current assaults being committed by ignorant and corrupt politicians at the behest of greedy corporate zealots, entitled: The Internet Under Siege.

The second document is a bit larger – it’s a full book actually – written by Jonathan Zittrain entitled The Future Of The Internet – And How To Stop It – generously posted online by the author under a Creative commons license. You might want to download it as a pdf file instead of reading right here. This work, like Lessig’s essay, is not new – it was published in 2008 – but provides a very compelling examination of how the attempts to lockdown and control use of the net will be catastrophic if left unchecked and provides clear insight into the ways this can be prevented.

I’m putting these up here because I keep getting asked by well meaning folks why I’m so adamant in my opposition to the attempted legal ass rapes of bills like SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, ACTA, TPP, Bill C-32, Bill C-30 and more – (check this out and this too) – and this is just as my way of saying: For crying out loud – read something, educate yourself and then Act. Now I won’t have to go into long snarling diatribes at parties or dinners (even though I probably still will ‘cuz everyone needs a hobby) – I’ll just send everyone to this post and they can then fend for themselves. There are plenty of other (and more recent) information resources but these two items provide a very strong foundation upon which to stand when considering whatever new line of craptastic legal hijinks we are getting sold by the black hearted weasels in power.

I’d rant more but I have to meet some fast approaching deadlines I’m working on and I don’t want to be cranky for the rest of the day.

My next post will be a little examination of part of my creative process – which will be a lot more fun than just me screaming and frothing at the mouth over the stupidity of greed.

Cheers.