It's begun. The Wild West that was the Internet is rapidly disappearing in a swarm of sheep farmers, settlers and revenuers. All the "edgy" sites are being snapped up by the buttoned-down corporate borgs -- Yahoo had been bought by SBC and has gone from fun to frumpy; Google bought YouTube, Sony bought Grouper, Microsoft continues to gorge itself and all the rest of the small innovative outfits are being scooped up, too. Because of the Big Boys making their plays, it's beginning to wreak havoc. Viacom has requested that YouTube take down some Viacom videos, including shows by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, as well as clips from MTV Networks and BET. See, the free plugs when YouTube was small potatoes was great -- now it's all about the money.
The next step? Watch for the companies that run the blogs (the ones that AREN'T coprorate yet) start to get snapped up and then the new owners start squashing people who speak up and out. Which means THe Daily Grill will soon be resorting to jokes about the differences between dogs and cats, bad drivers and why isn't airline food better.
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