Did anybody feel a disturbance in the Force yesterday? Nope, I didn’t either. But Neo was spinning in his cybergrave: The ‘Net went corporate on Wednesday, with the blessing of the U.S. Congress.
Yes, you can still surf anywhere you want on the Internet. But depending on what you’re looking for, it may take forever to load. See, there’s this bill sponsored by the telecommunications industry (uh-oh) intended to remunerate carriers for their support of the Internet. It all comes down to that wonderfully vague and innocuous term "’Net neutrality": Right now, everyone’s site is carried with equal speed and service, whether it’s Google.com or Ihaveapetferret.net. But the telco companies want high-dollar outfits (like Google) to pay for better service. That means Ihaveapetferret.net (and any other small site without Google million$ at its fingertips) likely won’t have the cash to pay up — and will get ghettoized by the carriers. Meaning… unless your blog is a blockbuster, no one’s going to read it. It’ll simply take too long to load.
Ouch. There’s goes cyber-democracy. I’ll still be around, flapping my corporate lips, of course. But my links won’t be quite so colorful. Hey, good thing YouTube’s hooking up with NBC and MySpace got in bed with Rupert Murdoch, right? Otherwise, all weirdness would be stamped out of the Web. But imagine if this trend continues: The extra costs of paying up to the carriers will be passed on to the consumer, I’d imagine. That could mean that, someday, only high-traffic YouTube bigshots (like, say, NBC) will be able to afford an upload surcharge; only the best-read MySpace pages would be allowed to stay up, or get delivered with anything approaching efficiency.
Remember dial-up, poor people? Hope so. Because that’s your speed limit now.
God, what a hysterical over-reaction! I’m sorry that companies like Google will have to get by *(but how?) without me subsidizing them.
Perhaps we should also allow single engine planes to use the same runways as commercial traffic. Otherwise we don’t have “democracy” Calm down!
I see his point, though, Mike. Stupid lobbyists and big business and Congress.
For all the hoopla over a marriage amendment, it sure seems like Congress loves f—ing people up the a–, what with this, cutting funding for PBS, staggering gas prices, voting to not raise the minimum raise, etc, etc, etc. By the people, for the people? Doesn’t look like it. Looks more like, ‘For those who donate money to us, to help them make more money.’ Blah…
I’m not a fan of the Telcos either but the fact that such extreme groups like the Christian Coalition AND MoveOn.org support this is enough for me to be a tad wary. Also Microsoft is supporting this. Apparently they can’t compete??!!!
I’m also worried whenever the Gov’t decides to weigh in. picking winners, who need subsidizing and losers who need to be tied up with rules and regs.
This article is a bit more balanced.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71012-0.html?tw=rss.index
You’re subsidizing Google, Mike?
Please, tell us how.
Also, Scott – you might want to rewatch your Schoolhouse Rock.
This is a committee, which writes the law. It’s not the actual law passing, and if you’d read the article, you’d know that it doesn’t (at least in its current form) have sufficient support to pass the Senate.
Which isn’t to say that this shouldn’t be fought tooth and nail when it does hit Congress.
Theo, do you take everything literally? Please tell us how.
Mike – thanks for the link to the Wired article.
Now I get it, because before, with everyone overreacting, I couldn’t get a fix on what was actually happening.
I just hope that the crafters of the 6 competing net neutrality bills understand the issues as well as the Wired writer does.
And I don’t think this law would affect anyone outside of the land of the free or the home of the brave. Way to be up on your geography there Scotty.
so much for us being the most advanced country. I went to Europe a few months ago, and their internet service puts ours to shame… going corporate is only going to make it worse…
Yeah, this was just a bill coming out of committee and it doesn’t seem likely to pass this year if at all.
Mike, you keep using that word “subsidize”.
I do not think it means what you think it means.
You mean people will actually have to pay for services they use? Oh, the horror! Don’t they know that getting everything for nothing is the American way?
This is a good post about T1 Internet Service because it is the future of internet technology.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/T1-Internet-Service.html
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