why i love the internet

Maybe I should have titled this Why I Love The First Amendment Of The United States Constitution, Well, Let Me Be More Specific, Right Now I'm Thinking About The Freedom Of The Press Clause, Not The Free Exercise Or The Establishment Clauses, Both Of Which Are Pretty Loveable Too. But that was too cumbersome.

But today's burning question is: save Karyn? Or don't save Karyn? And the answer in my mind has little to do with whether a candid twenty-something has learned her lesson about Prada shoes, and who should bail her out, but the continued viability of original work, and original parody, in an era when conventional publishing has gone corporate.

Now, I freely admit that Larry Lessig is much smarter than I can ever hope to be, but I have some faith that the individual spirit reflected in both of these sites will overcome government intervention. Yes, the example is trivial, but political parody websites abound on the Web, and then there's always The Onion. Truly we are living in days akin to those of the Tatler and the Spectator (which now can be studied interactively online, by the way).

update 8-13-2002

Morris Fortmann insists that Save Karyn and Don't Save Karyn are written by one person, a man who delights in getting one over on the media every few years. I am shocked, shocked to hear such a suggestion.