just because you're not paranoid...

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

Ron writes:
| How would you feel about Microsoft owning a piece of your broadband
| Internet connection?
|
| http://money.cnn.com/2001/12/04/deals/att_bids/

This isn't paranoia at all. A few weeks back, slashdot had an article
about  an ISP in Phoenix that was taken over by MSN.  They found that
their email could no longer be accessed unless they used a  Microsoft
email reader.

Here's the article:
   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/17/143230

There is, of course, a discussion of how feasible this might be,  and
whether MSN can actually tell what you're using.  But they could make
it very difficult for anyone but a  true  wizard  to  use  unapproved
software.

It's hardly a secret that Microsoft has been trying to buy control of
big chunks of the Internet.  There's no mystery why, is there?