shouting loudly

Google CEO’s netmare: Coming true?

The lead-in paragraphs from 3 stories on CNet say a lot more when put together than they do separately:

WASHINGTON–Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s nightmare scenario for a future Internet looks like this: As billions more people go online, those in power are so “freaked out” about the misuse of personal information that they suffocate the Web with stifling regulations.

All Internet service providers would need to track their customers’ online activities to aid police in future investigations under legislation introduced Tuesday as part of a Republican “law and order agenda.”

A forthcoming bill in the U.S. Senate lays the groundwork for a national database of illegal images that Internet service providers would use to automatically flag and report suspicious content to police.

Those folks at Google keep seeing things well before the rest of us; let’s help turn the prediction of a locked-down internet into nothing more than a bad dream.