I think one error being made here is discussing the culpability of law enforcement per se. That's like blaming the UPS delivery person because something you bought from Amazon was misleading. Or praising him/her because it was great. One way of asserting authority over any property is making very visible arrests and similar (shutdowns, etc.) If you follow the Internet Governance sphere a lot of what is going on is a frantic power grab by various players, particularly govts but also NGOs, for control of the internet. This is being heightened by the competitiveness involved, if one player grabs it before you do then you LOST THE GAME! Even when they haven't a clue (or only barely) what they're fighting over surely they can understand that it is bad to LOSE THE GAME! Particularly to players you don't much like or trust. As the great VP Dan Quayle was once quoted as saying: If we don't succeed then we run the risk of failure!* And that these players are finally figuring out just how powerful the internet is, at least potentially. Yeah you can say this has been going on for (insert your own professional life time in years which is what people do.) Heck, the whole thing was basically started by the US Dept of Defense, end of argument, talk about a power player! But that's sort of like saying that people were trying to capitalize on the internet for years before the dot com bubble of the late 90s. It misses the point. Yes you can find examples, no you can't find the kind of activity and earnestness we're seeing of late. * If you try to debate, confirm, etc that quote you're a loutish bore, it stand on its own :-) -- -Barry Shein The World | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Dial-Up: US, PR, Canada Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*