Recently there has been much news about private ISPs being required to give user information about people "suspected" of file sharing. These people aren't guilty, but are just suspected of sharing copyrighted material based on an IP address.

This has me thinking about how the government also wants to provide broadband internet to all citizens. First off, this is not the position of the government to provide, but who's gonna stop them? I mean, it's helping all of man kind, right?

The problem with this, like with our public schools, is that when the government owns the internet, or at least means to connect to the internet, they also control what you are allowed to do/see/use/transmit/share on the internet. You can guarantee that it will be regulated just as much as radio and TV are now. If you wanted your own tv show or radio show, would it be easy? No. Now, what about your own website?

We have to be very careful of what "good programs" we let the government provide, because they typically have unforeseen, negative consequences lurking behind all the smiles and promises.