There were two interesting articles I found on Digg and you should give each a good read because if you are on my website and reading this, you will definitely want to know how the world wide web and internet can become in a very near future.
The first article I found was on IPower, it speaks about the importance of net neutrality. Basically, all the large corporations are making plans to make the web a new medium like television service. Below is an image taken from the website and it gives you an idea:
Imagine this, the internet all backed by their respective ISP’s to deliver only content they want and you unable to have your own personal webpage. This would be the absolute demise of the web and what the internet stood for. It is sad and the real possibility of this actually happening is very real. And ISP’s and these large companies will control this one way or another. If all the ISP’s sign an agreement to block other websites and only deliver sites to content from the big name staples, then they can carry out this plan.
Another method is to control end-user bandwidth. Here is an article from Ars Technica, which is reporting a roll out by Time Warner in certain locations. Time Warner is an ISP and provides final delivery to the normal home-user internet access. They are test marketing a plan where they limit your monthly bandwidth for a price. For example, for $29.95 you will get 5GB of data; exceed that, you will be charged per GB. I do not actually track my personal bandwidth usage but I am sure if that were to happen, I would easily exceed a 5 GB limit. Between all the YouTube videos I watch or exchanging files with friends or just general browsing of websites; the bandwidth will accumulate. Imagine that; combine both of this and your looking at complete control over a medium that was created to benefit all of us as a free resource. For every email will there be a charge? If you download an ebook or software you pay for and have to worry about your bandwidth limit? This is ridiculous.
What happened to the good old internet days? I implore all of you to share this information and read both articles presented here. If you missed it; here are the links again. Lastly, be aware and do not let this happen!
2012: The Year the Internet Ends
40 GB for $55 per month: Time Warner bandwidth caps arrive
What will you do if this is our destined future? It really does become the end of the last frontier. I remember going on Geocities to create a webpage for myself as if I actually owned a piece of property and was able to maintain my space. And thats how I love to remember it. All the new social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, etc. are just what we do not need if we are moving towards a controlled medium where all services are charged a la carte on top of bandwidth. Share this article and get the word across, we want net neutrality forever!
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