The Web as you know it is going to end if the telecom companies succeed in eroding Net Neutrality. If you don't fight for an open Internet now, all the other causes you care about -- and future generations -- will be robbed of Internet freedom.

News Corp., Time Warner, and Qualia Capital are interested in buying the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio. Burdened by about $4 billion in debt, Los Angeles-based MGM said it is weighing options, including a possible sale of the company.

Wikipedia.org is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting. That could have significant implications for the brand of democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet -- the empowerment of the amateur.

The idea that a Web site has to pay to link to an item of news is completely against what the Internet is -- the free dissemination of information to all that seek it. If News Corp thinks Google is stealing the news, then they need to edit their robots.txt file to stop it. Otherwise stop whining and embrace what the Web stands for.

In Springfield, Ill., local public access television producers are hoping to pick up where Comcast will leave off next month, when the cable provider ceases operation of Access 4.

Comcast's push to gain control of NBC Universal has evidently hit a snag over the valuation of the programmer's stake controlled by Vivendi. The deal has stalled over the differential in valuing Vivendi's 20 percent stake in NBC-U.

If the telcos and cable companies can't run profitable businesses without government protections, maybe we should let them go under and allow entrepreneurs to pick up their assets and make them work instead. Government should be fostering a lot of competition in the access business.

Hulu is at the mercy of of studio content owners who are calling the shots on partnerships and who should be allowed to embed Hulu content. Hulu's strategy of limited partnerships is not a win for users -- or developers and startups.

DirecTV Chairman John Malone hasn't ruled out a possible takeover by AT&T or Verizon, saying they will likely have closer ties to his company as they develop packages of phone and television service.

Two bits of news from the last couple of days point to a new trend: Unsubsidized phones being offered without contracts. While these phones cost a pretty penny upfront, not being forced into a contract -- and having the freedom to switch from carrier to carrier -- is sounding mighty attractive these days.