Hi there!

I'd like to take a moment to say hello and thank you to everybody who's been stopping by. I've been seeing visitors (as shown by my Sitemeter thingie) from the U.S. (including one or more people apparently in Alaska!), Australia, Norway, Italy, and Ireland, to name a few. I've also fired off announcements to most of the people in my address book, including some people I haven't emailed in years. At least one of these people required some solid Google detective work to find her address.

I've noticed that at least one of my visitors is apparently from a law firm. I'm guessing that this is probably someone who read about my blog on Bill's site, IndustrialBlog, or possibly Sammie or Camilla's sites. Welcome, welcome, dear visitor from a law firm! All are welcome, all are welcome!

But I couldn't help but feel a touch of paranoia. After all, most (if not all) of the patents for basic CD (and possibly DVD) technology have been sold by the original patent-holders to consortia of lawyers whose sole interest is the relentless pursuit of patent infringers and the money derived from bringing litigation against them. Which is all well and good and right and as it should be. But I got to wondering...what if, say, Coca-Cola or the NRA or the RNC or the RIAA or some other corporate entity were to hire lawyers whose sole task was to scour the web (particularly blogsites) in search of sites that post potentially defamatory or even libelous statements about individuals, groups, products, or services? Don't laugh. Have you ever heard of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP? Or how about Food Libel laws? These aren't exactly the same sort of thing I have in mind, but what I'm thinking of would have a similar effect.

I think we're in the waning days of the "Wild West" era of the Internet. Right now pretty much anyone can set up his or her soapbox on the commons and spout off. Very little of it is listened to by the public at large, except for the stuff that gets turned into spam or urban legends, like the nine billion uses of Bounce fabric softener (rub it on lead items - they turn into gold!) The only way someone would really get widespread attention for their radical opinions would be if someone else tried to openly suppress them.

But in the near future, I suspect individuals and corporations will learn the value of monitoring what is said about them in the back alleys and shadowy corners of the Internet. And I fear that, in time, the suppression of controversial speech, dissenting speech, or speech that is not in the best interest of them what gots the power, will become a matter of course.

But until that day, let me again state: Welcome, welcome! All are welcome. All welcome. Go into the Light. There is peace and serenity in the Light...