By Stewart N. Thorpe of Citizen Press Revolution
Quoted from one of my magazine's (The Nation) online newsletters :
"Think the Internet will always be the freewheeling, democratic information superhighway you've grown to rely on? Well, think again. Corporate media giants are working behind the scenes to convince a clueless and compliant Congress to privatize the Internet. The telecom and cable giants want to fence off the Internet with one area for the haves--who will pay a premium to enjoy life in the fast lane--and the other for the have-nots."
As digital democracy expert Jeff Chester wrote, "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."
To ward off the prospect of "virtual toll booths on the information highway," an interesting coalition of public-interest groups like Common Cause and Free Press, along with new media companies like Amazon.com, are calling for new federal policies requiring "network neutrality" on the Internet. This would prohibit broadband providers from discriminating against any forms of digital content. In this way Internet service providers would be regulated like telephone companies, and couldn't simply decide to block their customers' access to legal websites.
Now is the time to make your voice heard before they vote on this. Click here to see how you can help defend net neutrality and the rights of Internet access.
This is something that will affect everyone here.
Don't let them screw with the Internet.
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Just another way to suck the people dry of every red cent they can get. I remember a few years ago when almost every type of instant messenger used to be free, then they started telling people they had to pay for it. I think if it got to that level a lot of people would refuse,then they'd had no choice but to put it back down to being free again.
I believe in net neutrality. We already have to pay more for higher bandwidth. Why should we have to pay more to access a certain web site? Privatizing the Internet will lead to censorship. Imagine not being able to view Apple's web site because Microsoft has a deal with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to charge you money to view a competitor's web site. Or Scientology signing a deal to prevent you from viewing sites such as Operation Clambake or FACTNet. It's like paying a someone to have a competitor's advertising removed. What's next? Charging money for every e-mail you send? Or how about requiring licenses per connection for every computer sharing one, like software?