The Nation: The End of the Internet? Corporations conspire to own it...

[Amaryllis]

The Nation
| posted February 1, 2006 (web only)
The End of the Internet?

by JEFF CHESTER



The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users--would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.

For the rest:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester

[mattclearing]

1. Good luck with that.

I predict this is virtually impossible. There will always be a way around it.

[Taxloss]

2. Pretty much impossible.

That would be like attempting to charge rent in a country with a fixed population but infinite buildings.

[Radio_Lady]

6. Excellent analogy, taxloss. Not going to worry my little head about it.

[Fredda Weinberg]

3. Free, open? What are they talking about?

Clinton & Gore gave away the Freenets to corporate America two decades ago. They've been low-balling us every since, waiting until they could tighten the noose.

[Initech]

4. Good for them.

If Verizon wants to make the internet a privately owned enterprise, they're going to lose customers quicker than you can say "WTF"?

I know I sure as hell wont pay to use everyday services. Fuck that.

[ThoughtCriminal]

5. So - it will be like the 1980's?

Are 300-baud modems part of the plan too?

[Ksec]

7. We already pay for it.

I pay a monthly bill for some crappy dial up service.

[melody]

8. Sounds like the scare fests around "pay TV" from the 60s

We all adjusted with far less turmoil and trouble than predicted.

I'm thoroughly willing to pay for the channels we get now versus the old days of substandard programming on 2,4,7,9,11 and 13 plus whatever UHF channel you could pull in with rabbit ears.

And we can still get the basic channels free.