Consumer Advocates Fear Corporate 'Fiefdoms' and a Class-Based Internet...

[bridgit]

SAN FRANCISCO - 'Two-thirds of Americans now have Internet access at home, but more than 75 percent of them are worried that the days of free and diverse Web services may be over, according to a survey commissioned by the Consumers Union, Free Press, and Consumer Federation of America.

More than half of the 3,000 people polled by telephone say they want Congress to pass legislation that protects their access to free Internet services like voice-over-Internet telephones, streaming Video, and Google, according to survey results released this week.

Consumer fears are based on recent decisions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enabling network providers--companies that own the actual cables through which the Internet flows--to charge Internet application providers like Yahoo! and Google for the use of their networks.'
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0121-02.htm

[Mnemosyne]

1. .

[yankeeinlouisiana]

2. K & R

n/t

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. kick

:kick:

[iconoclastNYC]

4. This is a huge threat!

This and DRM (Digital Rights Management) are two of the biggest threats to the free exchange of knowledge and art.

[bridgit]

6. agreed...

:kick:

[Surya Gayatri]

5. K & R

The web is all that's left--our only source of free & fair information. SAVE THE WEB! SG

[bridgit]

7. imo microsoft's assistance in the design of chinese search tags...

has made our federal government swoon for that kind of power. my dad, a WWII airmen, used to say that american gi's weren't required to shave their heads until they'd seen the discipline required of the wehrmacht...now the incursion into the people's source of free information.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. Yes, I've read elsewhere

that the Feds are green w/ envy and just dying to get their hands on this search-ware. What they couldn't do w/ it--terrifying prospect. SG

[bridgit]

9. their entry will be via a topic over which there can be little disagree...

i.e. pornography's accessing of american children, which is part of why i cringe whenever much effort is made to defend it as a per se 'freedom', although of course it is, in that now it is here = as an excuse to gain entry.

the sample they have requested is in excess of some 100,000 queries. the sample is plenty large enough to represent what it is they have keyed upon...but sufficiently large enough as well to data mine a trove of info not related to the request itself.

as is the case with the camel's nose and the tent; they will not be able to resist drawing conclusions false or otherwise imo

[Surya Gayatri]

13. Yes, the trumped up

pornography concerns are so transparent. Just a way to get their big foot in the cyber-door. BTW, can you explain the camel nose/tent reference--I've never heard the analogy. SG

[bridgit]

14. my pleasure, it is said that one only needs allow the camel's nose...

before soon and the entire camel is standing in one's tent = less then good, unless of course that is your preference...to have a camel standing in your tent i suppose :hi:

[Deja Q]

11. Thank you bill gates, you most altruistic of all humans...

[mom cat]

10. Highly reccommended...K&R

Thanks bridgit!

[hootinholler]

12. Support the EFF! They have been fighting this fight since forever

In Internet time.

more here.

-Hoot