Has this really become this big of an issue?

[VampiricClown]

http://www.savetheinternet.com/

[AmericanManiac]

I seen that shit the other day, if you ask me it's a bunch of BS.

[bleeding_angelgirl]

has what become an issue?

[crabapple]

I'm surprised that people at HDC actually don't know about this.




No, wait: I'm not surprised.

[bwind22]

You're surprised that people want to control what you see and read? Welcome to America, where ya been the last 20 years?

[AmericanManiac]

Enjoy reading :

What's this about?
Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Network Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services. Our broad coalition wants to keep the Internet free and open for everyone.

How does this threat to Internet freedom affect you?

Small businesses—The little guy will be left in the "slow lane" with inferior Internet service, unable to compete.

Innovators with the next big idea—Startups and entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that pay Internet providers for the top spots on the Web.

Bloggers—Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips—silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.

Google users—Another search engine could pay dominant Internet providers like AT&T to guarantee another search engine opens faster than Google on your computer.

Ipod listeners—A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering you to a higher-priced music service it owns.

Online shoppers—Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors with lower prices—distorting your choices as a consumer.

Telecommuters—When Internet companies like AT&T favor their own services, you won't be able to choose more affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your office.

Parents and retirees—Your choices as a consumer could be controlled by your Internet provider, steering you to their preferred services for online banking, health care information, sending photos, planning vacations, etc.

Political groups—Political organizing could be slowed by a handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups to pay "protection money" for their Web sites and online features to work correctly.

Nonprofits—A charity's website could open at snail-like speeds, and online contributions could grind to a halt if nonprofits don't pay Internet providers for access to "the fast lane."
What They've Got Planned
The threat to an open internet isn't just speculation -- we've seen what happens when the Internet's gatekeepers get too much control. These companies, even, have said as much about their plans to discriminate online. According to the Washington Post:

William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

He's not alone. Ed Whitacre of AT&T told BusinessWeek in late 2005:

Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

By far the most significant evidence regarding the network owners' plans to discriminate is their stated intent to do so. As Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg told the Wall Street Journal:

We have to make sure they don't sit on our network and chew up our capacity. We need to pay for the pipe.

Network Neutrality advocates are not imagining a doomsday scenario. We are taking the telecom execs at their word.

It's Already Happening

Such corporate control of the Web would reduce your choices and stifle the spread of innovative and independent ideas that we've come to expect online. It would throw the digital revolution into reverse. Internet gatekeepers are already discriminating against Web sites and services they don't like:

In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.

Shaw, a major Canadian cable, internet, and telephone service company, intentionally downgrades the "quality and reliability" of competing Internet-phone services that their customers might choose -- driving customers to their own phone services not through better services, but by rigging the marketplace.

In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.
This is just the beginning. Cable and telco giants want to eliminate the Internet's open road in favor of a tollway that protects their status quo while stifling new ideas and innovation. If they get their way, they'll shut down the free flow of information and dictate how you use the Internet.

[bleeding_angelgirl]

its bull shit what happend to it being our own lives.

[stenchofdeath]

Ha, just a typical move by the corporations to squeeze more money out of those who can least likely afford it. All a company has to do is measure the popularity of something like myspace against their current profits, and that is when your typical corporate greed kicks in. Look at the blatant rip offs some internet service providers charge for using their service. Lately it has emerged that Australia is far behind the rest of the world when it comes to download speeds and general internet services. Now the powers that be are looking to put regulation on the net as far as sites they don't think that we "should" be able to access. Youtube is apparently getting a look in, as far as what material is available on it and whether there are copyright infringements going on. Hello, anybody remember Napster.:mad:

[VampiricClown]

Originally Posted by bleeding_angelgirl

its bull shit what happend to it being our own lives.

...I never knew it was our lives to start with?

@Bwind22
I'm not surprised by this, I find it kind of humorous at how many enemies that all of these high authority companies are making by doing this. I mean come on, if a company takes something that I'm paying for, away from me to make me pay again, why the hell would I have anything to do with that company?? :p

[Despare]

If they planned on some of the things they're trying I hope they realize exactly how many hackers would tear them apart.