The Internet Is Abundance No Law Can Change

But there is a price to be paid. Try to firewall your Internet and people will either use proxies against the blocks or not go online. Try to tax links and files can't be found. The Internet is a goose, it lays golden eggs, and mistreating it just gets you fewer eggs.

The ultimate expression of this stupidity can be seen in Tajikistan, where the country's communications minister recently turned off access to Facebook, accusing it of "filth and slander," and then demanded that CEO Mark Zuckerberg appear at his office before he would consider turning it back on, as Global Voices reported. He will be waiting a long time.

This is the kind of thing Wired says governments want to make commonplace. Dictators want to know who is reading forbidden words, or thinking forbidden thoughts. Governments think taxing Internet data, or Internet use, will balance their budgets without pain.

The Internet Engineering Task Force, which runs the Internet from a U.S. base, has crafted a non-regulation proposal called "OpenStand" in concert with the World Wide Web Consortium and others. U.S. companies like Cisco (CSCO) and Juniper Networks (JNPR) make most of the equipment and the U.S. government does indeed tap the lines in its fight against terror and the absolute power of American copyrights.

But here's why I'm not worried. The Internet is a proven path to global abundance. The more you try to control it, the less abundance it will deliver. This is why even China's vaunted "Great Firewall" is in fact so porous.

Growth and a free Internet are the same cause. The more governments squeeze abundance, the more they squeeze their own economies, and the more their people will squeeze back.

Control cannot stand against the demands of abundance.

At the time of publication, the author was long GOOG.

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.

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