Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from content providers to individual users--would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.
To make this pay-to-play vision a reality, phone and cable lobbyists are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communications policy laws. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as private networks, free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Indeed, both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. Ten years after passage of the ill-advised Telecommunications Act of 1996, telephone and cable companies are using the same political snake oil to convince compromised or clueless lawmakers to subvert the Internet into a turbo-charged digital retail machine.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester
Note: http://www.thenation.co...
The End Of The Internet ?
Posted on Tuesday, February 07 at 08:44 by AnonymousContributed By
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Verizon, Bell, Telus, AOL - whomever do not control the Interent. They are what's called 'Tier 2' providers. In other words, there are two levels above them, who actually control the internet. These companies (Verizon, Telus etc) are Interent Service Providers (ISP's).
The 'Internet' for the most part is controlled by both the US Department of Commerce, and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN controls the 'root' servers, which handle the bulk of the functionality of the Interent. The Root servers are in 'hardened' bunkered locations all over the world. The physical locations of the root servers are closely guarded secrets.
ICANN does not control all the networking and data communications infrastructure through out the World. Most Tier 1 and Tier 2 ISP's have their own copies of the Root servers, and their infrastructure does not totally depend on the root servers. Root servers are usually consulted once a day; that is, every Tier 1 or 2 provider on the Internet gets a copy of the Root servers information every 24 hours.
No single entity controls both the Root servers, or the Data network connecting them. There is an old Interent axiom: "The Internet sees censorship as a data error, and routes data around the problem."
If any one or even all Tier 1 or 2 providers decided to 'control' or corrupt the Internet, new Tier 1 or 2 providers on the Internet, Supernet or Interent2 would take up the slack and route around 'Big Brother'.
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden