rational geekery

While the fact that the net will not be in the hands of the UN - and under the influence of the likes of the Chinese (whose concept of individual freedom is a joke) - is great news, let’s also be aware of the movement to ‘corporatise’ the net.

The carriers have been lobbying Congress for control of the Net since Bush the Elder was in office. Once they get what they want, they’ll put up the toll booths, the truck scales, the customs checkpoints–all in a fresh new regulatory environment that formalizes the container cargo business we call packet transport. This new environment will be built to benefit the carriers and nobody else. The “consumers”? Oh ya, sure: they’ll benefit too, by having “access” to all the good things that carriers ship them from content providers. Is there anything else? No.

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Thus, the Era of Net Facilitation will end. The choke points are in the pipes, the permission is coming from the lawmakers and regulators, and the choking will be done. No more free rides, folks. Time to pay. It’s called creating scarcity and charging for it. The Information Age may be here, but the Industrial Age is hardly over. In fact, there is no sign it will ever end.

The single greatest means of infomation equality and classical libertarian freedom is to be curbed by Corporate control. Is the time of unlimited access and civic provision (see Googles proposed San Francisco blanket Wi-Fi coverage) at an end? Will the net be the preseve yet again of those who can afford it?

Do US lawmakers have any idea of what is in the best interest of the public?