Salon.com is announcing a for-pay premium service, proving that free content on the web is officially dead. Jakob Nielsen ought to jump all over this as proof of the need for micropayments, and I would heartily agree. But, in the meantime, I would advise subscribing if you’re an avid Salon reader, unless you really look forward to more !@#$ing pop up flash ads…

By the way, the most outrageous thing about the original self-indulgent marketing crusade is the way they are cynically exploiting the name of Take Back the Night, the world’s oldest and most powerful women’s demonstration against sexual violence. Not to mention the kitschy, self-conscious appropriation of jargon and logos from women’s liberation and other liberation movements to hawk their marketing wares, which sometimes gets so absurd as to defy parody:

As Netizens, we hold certain truths to be self-evident: that the Internet was created and endowed by its Creator with certain unalienable Rights, chief among these: free Access to uncensored Content, the ability to Shop wherever and whenever one chooses and the general pursuit of e-Happiness.

First Revolution became an e-business trade magazine; now we are taking back the Net. And who is we?

Q: Who is ICONOCAST?

A: An Internet media publisher based in San Francisco best known for its weekly ICONOCAST e-marketing newsletter read by 50,000 senior-level marketing executives.

Q: Who is Michael Tchong?

A: Editor and founder of ICONOCAST, Michael is a well-known commentator on Internet marketing and advertising, with more than 20 years of advertising, publishing and software development experience. He is also the founder of MacWEEK magazine.

Oh yeah. All power to the people.

In response to Michael Tchong’s call for Netizens (what a god-awful word) to boycott offline business and use e-commerce sites on April 3, Ravenous Plankton has called for a Counter-Crusade with April 1 as Take Back the Net Day. Unfortunately, one of the requests is to do something worthwhile online. But never fear, gentle reader; I will not allow this requirement to stop me from publishing my usual blog entries!

SatireWire | Please, Help Sally Save the Dot-Coms – BWaHAHAHAHAhahahhaha!

There is a debate raging on the previously mentioned FreeRepublic in response to Jonah Goldberg’s column on Libertarianism and the Right — or rather, Harry Browne’s response to Goldberg’s column. Most of it seems pretty insipid, and is quickly focusing on hot-button issues such as Church/state and abortion. But it’s always interesting to see schismatic fights at work (well, interesting to me anyway…).