WAR ON THE INTERNET

"In short, America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity." -President Barack Obama, May 29th, 2009.

In 2001 I was beginning high-school. I had just moved cities due to a divorce. Shortly after, I gained a computer in my bedroom for the first time. It didn't take me long to learn about a program called "morpheus" from my peers at school. I had heard a few things about something called "Napster" - a tool (as it would be explained to me) that made it possible to STEAL music via the Internet. And now, I had something comparable. This "morpheus" worked as follows:

1.) Type in an artist name and hit "search."

2.) Highlight results, click "download."

3.) Play Counter-Strike, jerk off, go to bed, wake up and discover all the FREE FUCKING MUSIC that was now waiting for you on your hard drive.

Since then... nothing has been the same. I began what any adolescent male with a passion for music did: download EVERYTHING. I mean, why not? How on God's blood-stained earth was I ever supposed to pay money for music? I was fourteen years old.

That was the first time I ever knowingly took a criminal risk. Once I was past that hurdle - I was peddling burned CDs per order for lunch money between classes. You wanted a mix of Sublime, Nelly and Blink 182, I could get it for you the next day. All it would cost you is five bucks.

How did I get away with it? Well, I had a CD burner and an internet connection. That's all you needed.

Without "free music" I never would have discovered hip-hop. I never would have purchased my first Tool album. I never would have, later down the line, become a Dj. Why? The cost of music would NEVER have allowed me to discover the sounds I loved most. The cost of music never would have allowed me to discover that part of myself - an indispensable passion and drive that propels my every step today.

My only other option was to acquire my musical taste from another "pathway" of "communication." The problem was, this other "pathway," was (as I would later learn) bought, owned, regulated, divvied out, subscribed to, abridged, chopped up with advertisements and censored. Can you guess what other "publicly owned" means of "communication" I am talking about?

Television.

But... wait... Isn't television just a never ending loop of mediocre bullshit put out by FIVE companies - filling spaces between advertisements for the sole purpose of generating endless revenue?

Oh yeah. It is. So why the fuck would I care to flip on MTV and watch the same ten songs on rotation all day? That is, besides the fact that 90% of the programming has little or nothing to do with music? Either way, it didn't concern me. The people watching television programming were paying me five bucks a pop to burn a few tracks the boob tube couldn't provide.

It had become clear. The internet wasn't just for sending letters to grandma, looking up pictures of F/A-18 Hornets and sneaking into weird chatrooms when Mom wasn't looking. It was a living, breathing and ever changing place. People interacted from all over the world on THEIR terms, mostly. It was a place filled with confusing terminology and manual configurations. It was limited only by imagination and technical intelligence.

it was more than free. it was a place of Freedom.

"For all these reasons, it's now clear this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation." -Obama addressing "cyber terrorism" via foreign governments, loyalists and rogues.

Apparently, we're in danger. What if hackers take down our power grids? What if they hack the economy and blow it up?! WHAT IF?!

Excuse me for being childish. But I fear what President Obama's "new office" will have the power of regulating. Yeah - we need to defend our networks from attacks. But the following statement sent chills up my spine.

"From now on, our digital infrastructure -- the networks and computers we depend on every day -- will be treated as they should be: as a strategic national asset."

What the fuck? Now the internet is not only going to be treated like a strategic corporate asset but a national one too? I don't mean to sound like a paranoid idiot - but, really - how long until the power from this new office is heinously abused so badly that the internet is transformed into a disgusting, over-homogenized piece of corporate property like the television?

The Bakkheia Republic will be covering the progress of this new "cyber security" office closely and blowing whistles regarding the defense of net neutrality - as these two concepts have yet to reach a definitive and foreseeable meeting point.