I no longer feel any qualms about re-broadcasting youtube videos. I can't really. This site, which started a mere seven months ago, is now the 18th most popular site on the internet, doling out 100 million videos a day to an eager public, and is now the equivalent of the first major internet television network. When someone wants their video to be seen, there's only one place to go- YouTube.

It's an amazing internet success story, and has apparently taken everyone by surprise (even the folks who run the site, who have taken on only the most unobtrusive of advertising.)

As the republicans seem determined to destroy net neutrality, it's important to ask oneself- could a site like YouTube have come to exist, had net neutrality been abolished? Could a few folks create a site with such mass appeal and usage, on an internet that doesn't give everyone a fair shake, and equal access? The answer, of course, is "no."

To us in the activist community, this is the reason why net neutrality has to be preserved. When the market speculators left after the dot-com bust, the only people who were left to build the internet were those who saw it as a community. They demonstrated that if you wanted to make money or gain influence via the internet, you didn't provide the same crap the Mainstream Media has been spewing out- you used it as a conduit for public expression and entrepreneurship. Bushflash, for example, really wallowed in obscurity until I turned it into a media portal, where I showcased the works of indie producers (and then it floundered, again- but that's another story.)

To the moneyed interests, and their lapdog republicans- this is the reason why net neutrality has to be shuffled into the dustbin of history. A worldwide public forum where everyone has a fair shake, without having to pay anything beyond their cable or phone bill, is just anathema to them. Think about it- the only place where you can see images of what's going on in Iraq is the internet. The only place where you can see videos of what's going on in Lebanon and northern Israel is the internet. The only place where you can read honest discussions concerning 9/11, is again, the internet. The internet is the last bastion of democratic, all-inclusive media, and dangit- that threatens the status quo on so many levels, the bastards just can't let it continue.

I can feel the gates closing on the internet, as we know it today- but there still may be hope to save this wonderful thing we have going. Check out Save The Internet, and do everything you can, to help them out.