Grae
09-06-2008, 16:19
Incase you hadn't heard, many of the world's ISPs are planning on changing the way the internet works. By the year 2012 or even as soon as 2010 many of the world's largest ISPs are going to change their product packages to a model known as "tiered service."
Think if you will about a satellite or cable tv subscription. Standard will only get you so many channels, but pay more and you can access more content, ISPs want to change the internet to make it more like a TV subscription package.
This means that large websites like news corporations and large businesses will be able to afford to pay to have their sites accessed by their users. More non mainstream websites, independent websites like 4chan, HHN, Megatokyo, and services like Bit Torrent and even online games like Counter Strike or FFXI / World of Warcraft will have their services blocked by these ISPs unless the company that runs them pays to let their users through, and not only will they have to pay, the ISPs will make you pay EXTRA for things you can already do now.
And this is all perfectly legal.
Consider having a small website, which you basically run by the advertisements you have on your page, imagine your userbase suddenly went down to 10% of what it was because most people couldn't access your site, you wouldn't be able to afford to keep your site running anymore, and you'd have to take it down or stop updating it. Well thats the kind of situation many websites and their webmasters out there face when this happens, smaller websites, personal websites will be forced to shut down because they can't afford the high cost of letting more people access their site.
This goes against the basis of what the internet was created for, which is access to information for all people, unlimited restrictions and freedom for all. Whether you use the internet for less than reputable activities, or even just browsing HHN, it is your right to access that without being prohibited by a corporation's greed.
Don't let the Internet become this:
http://ipower.ning.com/extensions/gfx/netneutrality.jpg
Below are links to IPower, a website run by the group that does the Athene videos, and the lower link is to sign up for the IPower community where you can get ideas of how to get involved and to stop this happening. If you use the internet at all it is your duty to protect it as is.
http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2
http://ipower.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?target=http%3A%2F%2Fipower.ning.com%2F
Think if you will about a satellite or cable tv subscription. Standard will only get you so many channels, but pay more and you can access more content, ISPs want to change the internet to make it more like a TV subscription package.
This means that large websites like news corporations and large businesses will be able to afford to pay to have their sites accessed by their users. More non mainstream websites, independent websites like 4chan, HHN, Megatokyo, and services like Bit Torrent and even online games like Counter Strike or FFXI / World of Warcraft will have their services blocked by these ISPs unless the company that runs them pays to let their users through, and not only will they have to pay, the ISPs will make you pay EXTRA for things you can already do now.
And this is all perfectly legal.
Consider having a small website, which you basically run by the advertisements you have on your page, imagine your userbase suddenly went down to 10% of what it was because most people couldn't access your site, you wouldn't be able to afford to keep your site running anymore, and you'd have to take it down or stop updating it. Well thats the kind of situation many websites and their webmasters out there face when this happens, smaller websites, personal websites will be forced to shut down because they can't afford the high cost of letting more people access their site.
This goes against the basis of what the internet was created for, which is access to information for all people, unlimited restrictions and freedom for all. Whether you use the internet for less than reputable activities, or even just browsing HHN, it is your right to access that without being prohibited by a corporation's greed.
Don't let the Internet become this:
http://ipower.ning.com/extensions/gfx/netneutrality.jpg
Below are links to IPower, a website run by the group that does the Athene videos, and the lower link is to sign up for the IPower community where you can get ideas of how to get involved and to stop this happening. If you use the internet at all it is your duty to protect it as is.
http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2
http://ipower.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?target=http%3A%2F%2Fipower.ning.com%2F