The End Of The Internet As We Know It?

[Mr. T.]

I discoverd this issue on http://www.remhq.com and I'm pretty much alarmed by reading this article on the Washington Post website : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

It's a rather lenghtly read, but as it goes with these things: the longer, the more interesting they are  ;)

"No Tolls on The Internet

By Lawrence Lessig and Robert W. McChesney
Thursday, June 8, 2006; Page A23

Congress is about to cast a historic vote on the future of the Internet. It will decide whether the Internet remains a free and open technology fostering innovation, economic growth and democratic communication, or instead becomes the property of cable and phone companies that can put toll booths at every on-ramp and exit on the information superhighway.

At the center of the debate is the most important public policy you've probably never heard of: "network neutrality." Net neutrality means simply that all like Internet content must be treated alike and move at the same speed over the network. The owners of the Internet's wires cannot discriminate. This is the simple but brilliant "end-to-end" design of the Internet that has made it such a powerful force for economic and social good: All of the intelligence and control is held by producers and users, not the networks that connect them

The protections that guaranteed network neutrality have been law since the birth of the Internet -- right up until last year, when the Federal Communications Commission eliminated the rules that kept cable and phone companies from discriminating against content providers. This triggered a wave of announcements from phone company chief executives that they plan to do exactly that.

Now Congress faces a legislative decision. Will we reinstate net neutrality and keep the Internet free? Or will we let it die at the hands of network owners itching to become content gatekeepers? The implications of permanently losing network neutrality could not be more serious. The current legislation, backed by companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, would allow the firms to create different tiers of online service. They would be able to sell access to the express lane to deep-pocketed corporations and relegate everyone else to the digital equivalent of a winding dirt road. Worse still, these gatekeepers would determine who gets premium treatment and who doesn't.

Their idea is to stand between the content provider and the consumer, demanding a toll to guarantee quality delivery. It's what Timothy Wu, an Internet policy expert at Columbia University, calls "the Tony Soprano business model": By extorting protection money from every Web site -- from the smallest blogger to Google -- network owners would earn huge profits. Meanwhile, they could slow or even block the Web sites and services of their competitors or those who refuse to pay up. They'd like Congress to "trust them" to behave.

Without net neutrality, the Internet would start to look like cable TV. A handful of massive companies would control access and distribution of content, deciding what you get to see and how much it costs. Major industries such as health care, finance, retailing and gambling would face huge tariffs for fast, secure Internet use -- all subject to discriminatory and exclusive dealmaking with telephone and cable giants.

We would lose the opportunity to vastly expand access and distribution of independent news and community information through broadband television. More than 60 percent of Web content is created by regular people, not corporations. How will this innovation and production thrive if creators must seek permission from a cartel of network owners?

The smell of windfall profits is in the air in Washington. The phone companies are pulling out all the stops to legislate themselves monopoly power. They're spending tens of millions of dollars on inside-the-Beltway print, radio and TV ads; high-priced lobbyists; coin-operated think tanks; and sham "Astroturf" groups -- fake grass-roots operations with such Orwellian names as Hands Off the Internet and NetCompetition.org.

They're opposed by a real grass-roots coalition of more than 700 groups, 5,000 bloggers and 750,000 individual Americans who have rallied in support of net neutrality at http://www.savetheinternet.com/ . The coalition is left and right, commercial and noncommercial, public and private. Supporters include the Christian Coalition of America, MoveOn.org, National Religious Broadcasters, the Service Employees International Union, the American Library Association, AARP and nearly every consumer group. It includes the founders of the Internet, the brand names of Silicon Valley, and a bloc of retailers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Coalitions of such breadth, depth and purpose are rare in contemporary politics.

Most of the great innovators in the history of the Internet started out in their garages with great ideas and little capital. This is no accident. Network neutrality protections minimized control by the network owners, maximized competition and invited outsiders in to innovate. Net neutrality guaranteed a free and competitive market for Internet content. The benefits are extraordinary and undeniable.

Congress is deciding on the fate of the Internet. The question before it is simple: Should the Internet be handed over to the handful of cable and telephone companies that control online access for 98 percent of the broadband market? Only a Congress besieged by high-priced telecom lobbyists and stuffed with campaign contributions could possibly even consider such an absurd act.

People are waking up to what's at stake, and their voices are growing louder by the day. As millions of citizens learn the facts, the message to Congress is clear: Save the Internet.

Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Stanford University and founder of the Center for Internet and Society. Robert W. McChesney is a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-founder of the media reform group Free Press."

This is what scares me the most:

"Without net neutrality, the Internet would start to look like cable TV. A handful of massive companies would control access and distribution of content, deciding what you get to see and how much it costs"

any thoughts on this one?

[EC]

oh god.  

okay.  before i get negative, i'll think about this:  maybe we'll learn from our mistakes.  maybe we'll learn from our mistakes.  maybe we'll learn from our mistakes.

come on congress, you can do it.  let's keep some things unfucked up.  come on, come on...

[banjohead]

Damn politicians and Corporate America. Always trying to shadow our freedom. I can see them dancing around holding hands "Money money money money money." Shmucks.

[EC]

Damn politicians and Corporate America. Always trying to shadow our freedom. I can see them dancing around holding hands "Money money money money money." Shmucks.

okay, join me in turning those thoughts around into believing they'll do the right thing... :)  crazy things happen in the world - sometimes things work out okay...  

[primushead]

Damn politicians and Corporate America. Always trying to shadow our freedom. I can see them dancing around holding hands "Money money money money money." Shmucks.

Hahahah.  Oh, the age old ritual of "The Money Dance".  I think Congress even has a special room in which to do that.

[wellfleet]

pretty amazing and important when MoveOn.org AND the religious right can agree that restricting the freeflow of information is a bad thing...

while there is some absolutely vile and hateful crap out there, it deserves protection, if only to also protect, in the process, our right to learn about vile, hateful crap...

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

this issue is about AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, et al being greedy and nothing else.  the historical analogy here is the railroad system-trains used to stop at each switch and pay an additional toll for each one they stopped at as different companies owned different portions of the tracks-which is what the big communications companies want for the internet.  this issue will become reality IF the biggies like Microsoft, Yahoo!, or Google don't let it happen...companies like Yahoo!'s very existence really depend upon it not happening.

[ycartrob]

I'd have to say the deepest pockets win this one.  My money is on the lobbyists for Microsoft vs the BellSouth lobbyists. I think they have the creative and monetary edge.

[Enrump]

Americans....

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

Americans....

hey, don't scoff, it could be your neck of the woods too.  every ISP in the world is considering this...

[ycartrob]

Americans....

there would be no internet without Americans.

[Angry Ewok]

Folks will just end up figuring out a way to get free internet like they get free PPV...