Coming Soon: The Web Toll (Popular Science)

[eppur_se_muova]

Coming Soon: The Web Toll



Now a freeway, the Internet might soon become a turnpike. How new laws could transform cyberspace—and the way you surf it

By Tim Folger

What if the Internet were like cable television, with Web sites grouped like channels into either basic or premium offerings? What if a few big companies decided which sites loaded quickly and which ones slowly, or not at all, on your computer?

Welcome to the brave new Web, brought to you by Verizon, Bell South, AT&T and the other telecommunications giants (including PopSci and CNN.com's parent company, Time Warner) that are now lobbying Congress to block laws that would prevent a two-tiered Internet, with a fast lane for Web sites able to afford it and a slow lane for everyone else.

Specifically, such companies want to charge Web sites for the speedy delivery of streaming video, television, movies and other high-bandwidth data to their customers. If they get their way (Congress may vote on the matter before the year is out), the days of wide-open cyberspace are numbered.
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That looks set to change. In April a House subcommittee rejected a measure by Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts (D) that would have prevented telecoms from charging Web sites extra fees based on bandwidth usage.
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Christopher Yoo, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, argues that consumers should be willing to pay for faster delivery of content on the Internet, just as many FedEx customers willingly shell out extra for overnight delivery. "A regulatory approach that allows companies to pursue a strategy like FedEx's makes sense," he says.
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more: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/whatsnew/46f84d972e76b010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/05/25/the.web.toll/index.html

OK, folks, this is in Popular Science, a magazine bought by lots of middle-class types with pegboard tool racks in the basement and pimped-up game-playing PC's in the rec room. Maybe it's not quite the Money$treamMedia, but it's gonna be read by a lot more people than DU. Maybe folks are starting to stick their heads up and ask "Hey, where did our country go? How come the corps own absolutely everything?"

[madmark]

1. dont we already pay for faster content if we want it by purchasing

broadband services; i do not even understand conceptually what kind of tiers they are talking about.