Governments the world over have their collective panties in a twist over new internet technologies. Right here in the U.S., the obsession is with how terrorists will leverage technologies like peer-to-peer file-sharing to bring this country’s infrastructure to its knees. And right behind them is the RIAA and MPAA spouting the same rhetoric as justification for their lawsuits against 12-year-old girls for downloading the latest Brittany Spears mp3.

But if you look at the advances that have occurred just with the internet over the last five years, maybe it is a little scary. I can download movies and TV shows with a few clicks, stream hundreds of radio stations from countless different countries, and now with the advance of Youtube and its kin, I can star on my own personal TV station complete with movies shot on something as simple as a cell phone! The flow of information in this world just hit warp speed, and that means that corporations like Clear Channel, Newscorp, Tribune, and Viacom have felt their sweaty grasps slip. They are watching new sources of information spring up around them, as well as their own content being routed outside of their sanctioned channels. And in response to this threat, Old Media and their attack dogs (MPAA/RIAA) have “reframed the debate” by calling their customers “pirates” and “thieves”, and trying to sue them into submission. But they couldn’t do it without the support of a government that also has a vested interest in keeping a tight grip on information that circulates among its citizens. Our government. The same one that secretly authorized electronic eavesdropping on it’s own citizens, despite constitutional protections to the contrary.

However, the buck doesn’t stop here. Other regimes that refuse to maintain even the illusion of democracy are far more blatant in their restrictions on internet tech. During a recent trip to China, I found that certain websites were simply off-limits, no matter which hotspot I was connected to. But I later found out that many Chinese simply used a program called TOR to get around their government’s firewall. And that is, I suppose, the irony of information repression. The tighter you squeeze, the quicker the information slips out. And in more directions.

Enter Myanmar. The government is on a monk-killing, village-burning spree. And the first thing they did was shut down the internet cafes. But the information is still getting out. On Youtube, Google Earth, blogs, what have you. From the L.A. Times:

“In a bid to keep news of its crackdown from the world, the military regime tries to block communications, but the images still flow.”

I guess the message is simple. The technology genie is out of the bottle. And people everywhere will use it to keep information free and flowing. Thank god.