The End of the Internet?

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester

To quote this:
This could collapse everything. sciforum, our personal sites, everything. And with them watching us like the article says, I would be afraid to use the internet any more. Even I, an Internet junkie, would not pay loads of money per download or however they want it.

I know it seems unlikely, but there's still that possiblity. Anyone else afraid/angry/bothered/whatever?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Weren't we supposed to pay to a fee for each e-mail and instant message we went like 8 years ago?

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

I doubt this'll happen.

While something like this would suck, it wouldn't even be the end of the internet. Hell, they could charge $100 a month and it'd still be tons less than what I used to pay to be online 9-10 years ago.

- N

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Cool. Death to the internet.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

This is bullshit. The market would not allow it. period. No matter how big and powerful the corporations, it can never happen. You think ebay, google, yahoo, etc.. etc.. would allow that?

 

the endof the internet,

will be when the government ban it, because they think sadam hussain is making WMD inside of it somewhere,


in all seriousness the police and agents will be monitoring everything, then they will try to ban it or something and make it illegal to have connection to the www.


peace.

 

IT wont happen...

the price will only go up...

-MT

 

It will never cease to amaze me as to how people will so easily buy into some conspiracy theory.

That entire article is bogus along with the distorted, out of context quote by the Chairman of AT&T. No one ever has or ever will "use their pipes for free." Data transmission over the Internet has always - and always will be - paid for by the individual subscribers (like you and me) to those backbone companies (like AT&T) through the access charges we pay our ISPs.

It's refreshing to see from the replies that some here aren't buying this hogwash and that others are at least doubtful about it.

We've talked here before about source credibility and that comes into play on this "news" article and the site where it was found. Just remember that these people (The Nation.com) are totally anti-business and anti-government. Anything they publish should not be taken with just a grain of salt but rather with a whole truckload of it. Be wise - always know your source and then you can more accurately judge what they say.

 

i dont even think my reply had anything to do with the conspiracy theory, i was just typing a reply tot he title, i havent read the theory yet, but i know you wasnt refering to me anyway,

but i do think the government will later find that the internet helps terrorist organizations, and encourages revolutionist behaviour etc, and try to stop people somehow,


but im not saying anything if certain atall.


peace.

 

Hello Chi,

There's no doubt it helps the "bad guys." So does regular phones, cellphones, instant messaging, radios and any other form of communication. I'm not downplaying the Internet's role at all because it is THE biggest and easiest form of anonymous communication there is. Anyone can access it from dozens of different places without anyone else even noticing.

But when you get a chance to read the article you'll see that it isn't about that at all. It's claiming the big companies, with the help of the government, are going to turn it into a commercial-only venture.

 

oh, well i dont see that happening to be honest,

in my opinion ofcourse,

peace.

 

That article has some truth in it. I always thought e-mail was putting certain people out of business. Its a matter of time before the internet gets embraced by the longer arms of the govs and NGO's. In fact its going to have its own judiciary and enforcement bodies.

 

Internet Titans of USA will fall. Google, Yahoo, MS. Good for us.

 

Please explain why the fall of Google will be good news?

 

I would not take this so lightly. The AT&T guy has said such things numerous times now, and given the ongoing consolidation in the tel-com market, it is very possible.

In the US, we do exactly what this guy is asking for in the cell-phone market. You pay to make a call, and you pay to receive a call. You pay more for text messages, and even more for video/web browsing/ringtones....

Now, don't get me wrong, removing the nuetrality of the internet would be a HORRIBLE thing, and would, IMO result in a major downgrade in quality and further adoption; however, there is a very small amount of competition in the backbone space (as oppose to the last-mile ISP space). AT&T is one of the backbone carriers; they have some clout in this matter.

Google, Yahoo, Ms...are not ISPs or backbone providers, so thats of little worry. If google has indeed been buying up black fiber around the country, AT&T does impliment this teired payment system; then maybe we will finally have the onus to create the Web 2.0 - a P2P baed system w/o central DNS servers or Root cert systems.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing for greedy businesses to bury the current web.

 

If that were true, I could tell that AT&T guy exactly where to shove his 'pipes'...

But I doubt it is. A move like that would cripple the global economy. In South Africa we have a telecoms monopoly which has already put us at a disadvantage...

 

"We are microsoft, resistance is futile, you will assimilate"

 

I hope U r aware that USA has denied to quit controlling the internet. The more internet business is lost from USA the better off world will be from US internet Dictatorship.

 

That first sentence ranks among the most awkwardly written I've ever seen.

If you are tying to say the U.S. is maintaining control of the root servers and ICANN (and international organization, by the way) still has a leadership role, then you would be correct. But I doubt you are even aware of ICANN and what it does, are you?

And it's pure foolishness to claim that ANY one country controls the Internet. China places limitations on what it's population can see and Germany has a ban on the sale of Nazi items on the Internet - but even they cannot control the Internet itself.

 

This remark was made about a post by Anomalous.

Clearly you have not read any of his other one thousand one hundred and tweny nine posts. ...... Smart move.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Thank you.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

And you're quite right. I completely avoid them (or at least I have for quite some time now) unless they just happen to appear in a thread that interests me. And the norm is still to ignore them even then.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!