VERY IMPORTANT!!!! Read if you enjoy the internet...
There is some weird shit going on in the minds of telecommunication companies. Multiple heads of companies such as AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon have spoken out and suggested that they aren't getting paid enough to take people to sites such as Google. Basically they want Google to pay them for the service of taking their internet customers to their site. In other words, not only do these companies want to charge their customers for the right to use the internet but they also want to charge websites for the right to give their customers content.
Does this type of plan sound familiar to anyone? Basically it seems to me that the telcomms want to change the internet into a whole bunch of AOLs. I mean Google and Yahoo may have the money to pay all of these companies but what about smaller sites? What about small-businesses? What about the newspaper industry that is already having a hard time online. Imagine if the only place you could read the news on your ISP was FOX News.
The internet is supposed to be free(ish). We put up a site with the domain name that we pay for using the space and bandwidth that we pay for (we pay for school so we pay for the bandwidth they provide). This allows us to speak our mind to anyone who wants to see it. Not just the people in certain ISPs.
Meanwhile Congress is considering provisions that would ensure "net neutrality". This would make the internet free (as in free speech not free beer) but we have to make sure that congress knows that we want the internet to be free (as in speech but beer would be nice). Look at the last link in this post for a petition you can sign and send to members of congress and telcomm CEOs. Please take action this is very important for the future of the internet.
here are a couple of related links:
Verizon Executive Calls for End to Google's 'Free Lunch'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601624.html
Network Neutrality on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality
Net Freedom Now! Online petition.
http://www.netfreedomnow.org/
Does this type of plan sound familiar to anyone? Basically it seems to me that the telcomms want to change the internet into a whole bunch of AOLs. I mean Google and Yahoo may have the money to pay all of these companies but what about smaller sites? What about small-businesses? What about the newspaper industry that is already having a hard time online. Imagine if the only place you could read the news on your ISP was FOX News.
The internet is supposed to be free(ish). We put up a site with the domain name that we pay for using the space and bandwidth that we pay for (we pay for school so we pay for the bandwidth they provide). This allows us to speak our mind to anyone who wants to see it. Not just the people in certain ISPs.
Meanwhile Congress is considering provisions that would ensure "net neutrality". This would make the internet free (as in free speech not free beer) but we have to make sure that congress knows that we want the internet to be free (as in speech but beer would be nice). Look at the last link in this post for a petition you can sign and send to members of congress and telcomm CEOs. Please take action this is very important for the future of the internet.
here are a couple of related links:
Verizon Executive Calls for End to Google's 'Free Lunch'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601624.html
Network Neutrality on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality
Net Freedom Now! Online petition.
http://www.netfreedomnow.org/
posted by Oscar at 3:25 PM
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