And in the days since then, I've happily witnessed the fizzling of the public's infatuation with dot-coms. When the stock market tanked in April, you could almost smell the hype machine burning out. Companies like Boo.com and Toysmart went out of business; others, like InfoSpace, dropped the dot-com from its name, while dozens more (Salon included) reset their expectations and laid off staff accordingly. Even the long bullish Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget turned sour, downgrading 11 bellwether Internet companies last week including Buy.com, eToys and Pets.com.

But now that the whole Net business frenzy is dying down, I'm learning that my initial relief at the dot-com demise may have been misplaced. It's not enough to cheer for the rebels, to kick the losers when they're down, to laugh at bad business plans. To focus just on the antics of dot-com excess is to obscure the real problem -- the underlying sense of entitlement, the belief that the new economy deserves special treatment because it's so unlike anything that's come before.

For several years now, we've heard and seen endless reports about the new economy that try to convince us that dot-coms are unique, that they are important, sexy and glamorous. Drugstore.com is not a standard Q-tip dispenser, it is a $291 million pioneer in the revolutionary field of e-commerce. Evite is not just the creator of a clumsy alternative to phone calls or e-mail invitations, it is a "fun, free, online activity center that helps people connect and get together with family, friends and colleagues;" Webvan is not a warehouse and a fleet of delivery trucks, but "the world's market at your doorstep." (Have these motto writers never fondled heirloom tomatoes at the local farmers market or sampled a half-dozen Camemberts at their neighborhood cheese shop?)

Sure, we all know that the Net has "revolutionized" business, but does that mean each and every e-company deserves special credit just for using this new medium? Did the first coal miners to ship their fuel on trains rise to celebrity status? Did the mine owners who found new far-flung markets for their coal demand government subsidies to compensate their brave use of trains and expect to be knighted as heroes as they proclaimed their superiority over their horse-and-carriage peers?

You'd think that dot-com "pioneers" would simply be grateful that the Net was invented -- and would quietly build their empires while the programmers who created the new medium reaped the glory. But instead, they've been demanding special treatment and exceptions to standard laws and business practices, while jockeying for our undivided attention.

The Free Software Project
Read Andrew Leonard's book-in-progress on Linux and open source -- and post your comments.