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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat if Verizon succeeds in killing the Internet?
I've posted countless essays over the years on the importance of Net neutrality and how big ISPs are trying to turn the Internet into a pay-per-view system, rather than the open-access system it was always intended to be. I've written open letters to federal legislators; remarked on the various games being played by AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and the like; and cheered Google Fiber for demonstrating that the big ISPs are full of nonsense when they claim their backs are against the wall in terms of broadband speeds and reach.
And now, Verizon is claiming it has free speech rights to limit and block content flowing from the Internet to its customers. That stance is so ridiculous that the lawyers responsible for cooking up that one should either be canonized or jettisoned into space. I'm not sure which.
However, this is happening. Verizon is making a big push to begin actively blocking content and competition from its network. This is a bald-faced attack on the Internet in general. It's abhorrent. But what happens if Verizon wins? What happens if Verizon establishes a precedent for censorship?
Many in the free-market camp will say that customers unhappy with Verizon's service can simply take their computers and go to another provider. Ah, if it were only that simple. If there were any kind of actual competition in broadband service in the United States, we wouldn't be in this position to begin with. The market would take care of these kinds of transgressions naturally.
However, this is not the case, and the vast number of markets that have no real competition will be faced with a choice between a neutered Internet and no Internet at all. "But you can go wireless!" they say. Sure, for vastly overcharged subscriptions and minuscule data plans. Oh, and Verizon is in that market too.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-center/what-if-verizon-succeeds-in-killing-the-internet-227175
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Including some within them.
If this got even close to happening, they would endure DoS attacks forever.
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)BTW the rumors of Anonymous's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
TacoD
(581 posts)mrdmk
(2,943 posts)Verizon is going to the next level with the home service.
The real problem is their infrastructure was done on the cheap, now it is a joke (inside info, do not ask for a link).
Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Zorra
(27,670 posts)JVS
(61,935 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)(Yeah, we really do need to cut the hyperbole, folks, it's not helpful.)
With that said, though, this is undoubtedly worrisome; corruption is *definitely* a serious problem within the big 'Net corps these days and is only liable to stick around, and maybe get worse from time to time, until it's stopped.
And Mr. Venezia hit the nail on the head on one other thing, at least: the "free-market" solutions the righties and the libertarians keep hawking on about are practically non-existent; indeed, if there *was* any real competition, there wouldn't be such a problem.