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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is attempting to nip this problem in the bud with an extensive new policy to keep patented technology away from our Internet standards -- or at least let us gain access to such technology on a royalty basis. This is a good thing. Companies should feel free to build commercial products and charge what they will; the market will sort it out in the end. Fortunately, these companies are kept in check by the surge in open-source software, whose quality is rising faster than Calista Flockhart from the dinner table.

Another World

But the Internet is different. We can be as idealistic as we want. The Internet is for everyone, provided you have enough cash for a PC and an ISP connection. The Internet must be kept as technologically pure as possible. The basic building blocks must never be owned by a single vendor but rather live independently of any commercial interest. That's why we need to tread so lightly when we begin using Web services. We must avoid building too much of anything tied into what Microsoft or Sun Microsystems or any other company produces. This is why keeping alternative browsers alive is so important. And this is why I'm concerned with AOL (I'm trying not to be peeved, upset, irritated or PO'ed). I've tried being a loyal Navigator user, so I was happy when AOL and Sun bought Netscape. I figured the online giant would give its 40 million users plenty of reason to use Navigator. But instead of investing, AOL let Navigator languish. Now AOL is suing, claiming Microsoft illegally killed Navigator and should pay damages.

Let me get this straight: AOL offers Internet Explorer as the default browser for its service, invests almost nothing in Navigator and blames Microsoft because Navigator's installed base fits into a Volkswagen? I'd like to meet the attorney who can argue that with a straight face!

The pope may not spend his days typing Google queries, but he does care deeply about the Internet's effect on our society. Free-speech maniacs will flip, but Pope John Paul II believes Internet content should be regulated and controlled. And you know what? He's right.

No one should get something offensive back after typing in an innocent-looking URL.

And no one should open his or her e-mail in search of Aunt Betty's apple pie recipe only to be crushed by an unceasing flood of come-ons. There should be one Internet clean enough for your children and another available to anyone who can verify his or her over-21 status.

While I may be upset with how the filth on the Internet intrudes on our browsing experience, I am equally upset with companies that spy on their employees, looking for moral transgressions. First, it's nobody's business what's on your computer when your door is shut and your work is done. But worse than that, all too often some low-level yokel does the monitoring -- with no training or instructions on how to protect employee privacy.

A vendor once boasted to me that the morning his company's monitoring software was activated, the IT department discovered one of their own searching for gay porn. Was this guy's life and reputation ruined because of a lapse in judgment?

With a segregated Internet, these problems go away. A company could set it up so the over-21 Internet is not available to employees. Both privacy and the moral fabric of American corporations will be protected.