Verizon's diabolical plan to turn the Web into pay-per-view

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/verizons-diabolical-plan-turn-the-web-pay-view-226662



Think of all the things that tick you off about cable TV. Along with brainless programming and crummy customer service, the very worst aspect of it is forced bundling. You can't pay just for the couple of dozen channels you actually watch. Instead, you have to pay for a couple of hundred channels, because the good stuff is scattered among a number of overstuffed packages.

Now, imagine that the Internet worked that way. You'd hate it, of course. But that's the direction that Verizon, with the support of many wired and wireless carriers, would like to push the Web. That's not hypothetical. The country's No. 1 carrier is fighting in court to end the Federal Communications Commission's policy of Net neutrality, a move that would open the gates to a whole new -- and wholly bad -- economic model on the Web.


As it stands now, you pay your Internet service provider and go wherever you want on the Web. Packets of bits are just packets and have to be treated equally. That's the essence of Net neutrality. But Verizon's plan, which the company has outlined during hearings in federal court and before Congress, would change that. Verizon and its allies would like to charge websites that carry popular content for the privilege of moving their packets to your connected device. Again, that's not hypothetical.

snip

[msongs]

1. step one - end local cable company monopoly nt

[brooklynite]

4. Step two - stop being lazy and shop around...

Most people seem to assume that the only Internet resources are their cable company and their phone company. There are dozens of other choices available, but most people don't bother to search them out.

[pnwmom]

5. I DID bother to search but when we moved here several years ago,

those were the only choices. Our city has given the cable company a monopoly.

Are you sure that everyone has other options besides the cable company and the phone company?

[brooklynite]

9. Give me your zip code....

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. I will take you up on that offer...

36460

We have DSL from Frontier, no tv, no radio,
phone or cable are the only 2 options for puter hookup in our area.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. There might be dozens of choices where you are

But where my mom is, there is only one choice of Internet provider for people who don't have landline phones. And yes, I checked up on it for her.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Step three, he is right

we have two companies in town. They are not competing with each other, they have assigned territories.

[Jenoch]

7. That's a municipal thing.

My hometown has competing CATV systems. There are also competing landline telephone companies (actually 3) and competing cellular companies.

[onehandle]

2. God, I hate the telecoms. nt

[NutmegYankee]

15. Don't we all!

I just wish we could shatter them into little pieces. But now I see that the government wants them to be giant entities. It makes surveillance simpler when you only need to go to 4 or 5 entities.

[jberryhill]

20. Here, this will change your perspective

[Glassunion]

3. I read the article.

There was no mention of sharks with laser beams on their head... I'd hardly call it diabolical.

[Pholus]

10. Yup, net neutrality was ALWAYS about this:

[russspeakeasy]

11. Scary to look at....but it does make the point. Thanks.

[woo me with science]

12. This is deadly serious,

and not just because of the consumer's nightmare of expensive, limited packaged content that it'll bring:

(Edit: Removed picture because the post above mine already has it.)

The job of these providers is to offer access to the complete internet, period. Ceding them any control over content or access to content *will* lead to censorship and tyranny.

We will lose our fundamental freedom to access the world and each other unfiltered by a corporate agenda. Corporate CEO's will offer us exactly what they want us to see and experience, and they will leave out what they don't want us to have access to. And we can kiss goodbye any chance of using the internet as maybe our last remaining tool to educate and organize together against the corporate exploitation of all of us and the corporate corruption of our government that is destroying this country.

[drm604]

13. Didn't we fight and win this battle once?

How many times are we going to have to fight this?

This would be bad for the country just purely from an economic viewpoint. The only ones who would benefit would be the major carriers and I suspect that even they would be losing out in the long run.

[Uncle Joe]

14. We will probably always have to fight this battle.

The forces of rampant greed and power lust are relentless, so we must remain just as tenacious.

[PowerToThePeople]

16. infrastructure should all be nationalized.

If private industry wants to be involved, they can lease access from the state.

[xfundy]

17. Damn right.

The People are supposed to own the airwaves and as far as I know the Internet is also owned by The People, for how could it not be, since it's a government invention?

So damn tired of Privatization, which rips us off while rewarding rich pricks.

[niyad]

18. k and r, and bookmarking for that truly depressing image downthread.