Net Neutrality
Katzenklavier
Regular
Google recently teamed up with verizon. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/google-verizon-pact-it-ge_b_676194.html
The latest thing ISPs are thinking about is selling Internet packages.
The problem is that the cheapest packages may only include very limited access to a thousand or so websites that the companies deem useful. The webmasters effectively pay a extra to allow users to access their sites. Everything else will get filtered or severely bandwidth crippled.
This means that many personal and small websites will get excluded from a large user base, because they can't afford the charges.
I expect the internet to turn into this in the near future, and websites like totse will be banished.
The latest thing ISPs are thinking about is selling Internet packages.
The problem is that the cheapest packages may only include very limited access to a thousand or so websites that the companies deem useful. The webmasters effectively pay a extra to allow users to access their sites. Everything else will get filtered or severely bandwidth crippled.
This means that many personal and small websites will get excluded from a large user base, because they can't afford the charges.
I expect the internet to turn into this in the near future, and websites like totse will be banished.
Comments
Edit: I went and read the article. I misunderstood what the deal was, but it's pretty fucking bad. Charging sites for them to receive preferential treatment will pretty much destroy all but the biggest ones. It's pretty fucked. I signed the savetheinternet.com petition.
Last year the FCC tried to reclassify the internet as a common service to prevent this and enforce net neutrality, but they failed.
I was in grad school for 2 years. I'm still not up to speed on a lot of things. The last I heard about net neutrality was probably 3 years ago. I didn't know this was an issue now.
Sign the petition - http://savetheinternet.com/fcc-comments
This is impending and will happen. Now we can only pray that consumers will bitch so much that it goes back to the way it was. That won't happen though, as people are just going to suck it up and pay more like the pansies that they are.
Still, it gives the option of censorship to ISPs. They can cripple the bandwidth of any site they don't like.
Can't you guys go talk to your politicians? How about the first amendment? Freedom of speech? Or freedom of press? Arn't those applicable to this case? I mean, if you can get enough people together (and why wouldn't you be able to, THE INTERNET IS AT STAKE), I'm sure you can raise the money to get a couple good pro free-speech lawyers to sue google and verizon over this.
Don't sit idly by while your freedoms are taken away, guys. Do something, and do it NOW dammit! Most of you are students, get the rest of the US's students together and do something about it! Peaceful marches, flyers, pettitions, get everyone you know to write a letter to every politician in your state, wether you like 'em or not. Ask your parents and grandparents how they organised student-protests in their days. I'm serious, you can do something about it, but you have to ACT and do it NOW. One petition won't do shit, but make sure every politician's desk is filled with letters every day and there are thousands of petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures in each state and it will make a difference.
Get your student's council involved. Tell that bunch of spoiled brats and geeks that now's their time to act. Or get in the student's council yourself, school's just starting.
Imagine what all the 4Channers would do if none of them could access their site because it's deemed "unimportant". Lawl it would be a big shitfest......
In addition to a War on Drugs, there will be a War on Communications.
Terrorists win!
Seriously though, they can't just take away people's communications and expect them to sit idly by.
Student protests aren't going to really do anything. No one cares about that. Writing letters to politicians would work if thousands of people did it and if the politicians actually look at them. Getting the word out is the most important thing. If people are educated on the issue, they'll see why this is a bad thing. You have to stress that they're going to be losing things they already have. When people see they're going to lose stuff, they get pissy.
Yeah, well, there are a lot of things the French do which the rest of Europe doesn't do ... And Sarkozy is gonna lose the next elections, so that'll mean a lot of change in France. Hopefully they put somebody with half a brain in power.
And I'm serious. If this happens here and we can't stop it, I'm moving.
But how could we do that without internet?
Western union telegrams?
Edit; aparently they stopped sending telegram in 2006.
http://newsblaze.com/story/20100912100901zzzz.nb/topstory.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/09/house_net_neutrality_bill_face.html
Yay!