Once, we were free;
We wove a net
Of silicon and copper
Of photons and electrons
Of words and thoughts.
We knit our web in the spaces between
The pieces of the Combine
And they noticed us not.
Over connections faster than thought
We joined our minds
Without restriction.

But They, the Combine,
Those fucking assholes,
Those corprate bastards,
Couldn't be fooled forever.
Trying to co-opt our net
They found a freedom they could not bear
And decided it must be stamped out.

But our web is strong, it spans the world;
Cut a strand and two more grow in its place.
In a war of words, ours have wings to circle the world.
In a battle of ideas, we can link to each other's thoughts.
And with and alphabet soup of weapons - 
FTP, NNTP, SMTP, HTTP, WWW, PGP - 
We shall overcome.

Tom Swiss / tms@infamous.net