We love the internet, but not everyone seems to share our enthusiasm. Some people hate it because it has destroyed their business models. Some hate it because people slag them off online. And some hate it because they're crazed totalitarian nutcases. Let's find out who they are.
Actors
Harrison Ford isn't keen on the web: "I hate the internet," he said, adding "any kind of rubbish goes on the internet and it can have a fucking life of its own." He's not the only one: while promoting Leatherheads, George Clooney mocked "a thousand people sitting in dark rooms trashing you… you're like, 'wow, dude!'" Then he tried to smash the internet with a hammer. We made that last bit up.
High street shops
In 2005, the boss of HMV dismissed the internet as an irrelevance. In 2006, he resigned after competition from cheap online shops and download services wiped out HMV's profits. Now, the world's biggest music retailer isn't HMV, or any high street chain, it's Apple.
The internet hasn't just ruined music retailing. Online shopping and price checking services have forced all kinds of retailers to slash their profit margins just to stay in business – and many of them still didn't make it. Things will only get worse for the high street as the internet moves to our mobiles and tells us when there's a better deal next door.
Hollywood studios
Before the internet, studios could release any old bobbins and make a fortune. Now, spies in focus groups and leaks from insiders can kill the buzz on a movie before it's even finished, and file sharers are trading blockbusters on the day of release. The studios' attitude to the internet is like Robert De Niro's attitude to Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents: gritted-teeth acceptance rather than joyous love.
The Church of Scientology
The famously litigious not-a-cult-honest-guv spends a lot of time chasing internet leaks and online criticism. We'd say more, but as we discovered a few months back, they know where we live. Eek!
Pop stars
Prince sues fans for uploading their own images, Elton John wants the internet shut down for a few years because it's destroying good music and Roger Daltrey feels "about as useful as a pork chop in a synagogue with all this internet bollocks… go out. Get a life". We'll just gently point out that all three internet-hating gentlemen are, ahem, somewhat past their sell-by dates.
The RIAA
To paraphrase The Sixth Sense: "I sue dead people!" And grannies!"
Tabloid newspapers
Maybe it's because the internet is killing the classified ads that keep their local papers in business, or maybe it's just that their readers fear anything that's happened since 1956. Either way, the result is that a number of newspapers go out of their way to find negative things to say about the internet and never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Metallica
Although technically pop stars, the ageing metal millionaires deserve a category to themselves: as if attempting to nobble Napster and inadvertently making file sharing even more popular wasn't enough, they're still whingeing about the internet – this time, because it lets fans listen to their new album and tell one another that it sounds rotten.
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
orbital_fox
October 6th 2008
3. I just singed up just to comment on this.
My friend says pretty often "dont hate the game, hate the player". You cant hate the internet cause its not the concept behind it that is bad, its all those people that have been allowed access to it (smart/idiots, interesting/boring, etc).
Unfortunately it seems that the "boring idiots", excuse my French, have got more time available and with the ease of today's technology related to internet, they have been infecting every aspect of it. They create junk as fast as their head spits it out.
Maybe this fact is amplified by the whole freedom of speech principle, which some people take as freedom to bore us with their lives (bebo and facebook, etc) or with just another blog out there. Btw there is probably more bloggers then readers these days.
Maybe its time someone invented a "spend some time in your head and real life-net", and leave the internet for important things. Either way ill agree with anyone saying that they are turning the internet into another TV, simply by filling it with they junk and promoting junk creation (once again thank you social network websites..).
As for a the legal implications, its a whole different subject, but Ill quickly agree that internet has helped piracy, and removed principles and natural laws that society was based on. Its our duty to choose whether we want to stop writing the occasional letter with a paper and pen, going to the cinema, and as the fellow user above reminded me, meet our wives with "love at first site" or "love at first instant message over world of warcraft".
Regards
SFP
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fikhl
October 6th 2008
2. I'm from Iran, and I can assure you that high speed internet is not "banned" here, it's very expensive that few people can afford that. but it's not banned! There's a bandwidth limit for home users though, that has caused widespread criticism.
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captaindangeax
October 6th 2008
1. Hi geeks of the world.
Some hate the Internet for good reason. Piracy is a mess, it's stealing.
Some hate Internet because they don't know it. Like we say in French, they're looking thru the big size of the google. They don't deserve to be listen to, like actors or sportsmen for example. What clues do they have ? They're not even able to install windows or linux from scratch !
The last group knows well Internet, and knows what threat it is for their "twisted" behaviour, just telling the truth.
For Metallica, I think you suck and you always did. Deep purple is far better, and Scorpions too. Good hard rock is from Europe, USA only produces noise.
PS : I met my wife on Internet and I'm the happiest in love in this world.
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