Not to begin your day with a bummer, but I've been expecting this for a long time - and today I'm worried that global/corporate/government news control may have arrived in a subtle way.
Before I get to the specifics, first the 'big picture' stuff: You may be aware that our friends with the predictive linguistics project have been seeing out some ways into the future, perhaps mid 2009, we will all slowly lose our ability to communicate freely and openly at the 'global' (hive?) level as corporations and governments begin to lock down the internet. Might be on a phony 'terror' prevention pretext or a 'copyright' red herring, or whatever.
If you've been thinking that this was just a pipe dream, here's this morning's development:
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I have ran into this headline which I wanted to read (which I assume came from an RSS feed) over at the Google news search engine:
90% netbooks sold with XP Scenta.co.uk, UK - 27 minutes ago Asus has revealed that the sales of Eee PC models pre-loaded with Linux have fallen dramatically following the availability of Windows XP versions. ...
Yet, when I clicked on the link this morning, I got this curious message:
"This website is temporarily only available for UK residents. If you are a UK resident but still cannot access the site, or are a non-UK resident with a specific reason or need to access the site, please contact admin@scenta.co.uk (ensuring that you do not change the subject of the email). If you do not click the above link then please quote the following reference in your email: 213892869. Your access request will be processed as soon as possible and you will receive a response by email."
Hmmm...curious, I thought, so I sent them a polite inquiry asking - in effect - "What gives?"
"Hi I run a financial news oriented website and I would like to know why this site is only available to UK residents?
I have written much about the coming 'restrictions on access" that will be used as a tool of government and corporate control and wonder what has driven www.scenta.co.uk to impose access restrictions such that American readers are not able to click on what appears to be your RSS feeds and get content which has been 'broadcast' via RSS?
Thank you in advance on behalf of our readers.
George Ure www.urbansurvival.com
I'll let you know what they say...(if I get an answer, that is...)
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I don't think I have to tell you what my fear is? That this could be the leading edge of something much, much larger. First China, North Korea and......but then content restrictions from the UK? There goes the 'net'? Inch by inch....
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