Another good topic Jari.
Awww, thank you. I just wish that I had time to reply sooner, I've been really busy, tweaking my desktop. Somewhat related to the 'post your desktop thread'.
Just saw a partial documentry on Iran, I think it was with that reporter Ted Koppel was the National Geographic channel, I think. I say partial because I was channel surfing. Anyway... their internet is heavly filtered. So, it's not like goverments aren't trying to stop it.
Same is true for China, to certain extent. And unless Iran's filtering is considerably smarter than the Chinese, people probably know how to get around it as well. Well, maybe not your average surfers, though.
Doubt the internet is going to change much, very fast.... if such filtering continues and I see no reason why it wouldn't.
Even with Iran and China excluded, there are lots of countries who don't filter, so it's not entirely doomed idea, I hope.
And it is needed elsewhere than just in the oppressive totalitarian states
(Which certainly would need it, I admit that). See what your
allies think of Bush. And how the world's
perception of US has changed during his administration.
While running a country is not supposed to be a popularity contest, I'd certainly hope that Americans would pay attention to what world thinks of their leadership. It will eventually come back and bite them, if they don't, after all.
And this applies to all countries, of course. So, I'd say that this is crucial for everyone, not just for the citizens of those countries which like to control the media
(like China, North Korea, Iran...).