Flipping this around, web site owners could charge isps for the  
privelidge of getting access to their potential customers.  The only  
winners either way are the ad agencies.  We could even go to the  
metered internet that some have been arguing for over the past  
several years.  It's been tried but not too successfully partly  
because the internet had not enjoyed as much penetration as it does  
now.  Some change that benefits commercial interests is bound to come  
and when it does, it'll hit the consumer hard.  What form it will  
take or what forms it will take, who knows.  Some companies are  
exploring charging to have email delivered.


-- 
Jonnie Apple Seed
With his:
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s


On Feb 21, 2006, at 5:05 PM, PETER ALTSCHUL wrote:

Tollbooths on the Internet Highway

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/20/opinion/20mon1.html?hp The New York  
Times February 20, 2006

Editorial

When you use the Internet today, your browser glides from one Web  
site to another, accessing all destinations with equal ease. That  
could change dramatically, however, if Internet service providers are  
allowed to tilt the playing field, giving preference to sites that  
pay them extra and penalizing those that don't.

The Senate held hearings last week on "network neutrality," the  
principle that I.S.P.'s - the businesses like Verizon or Roadrunner  
that deliver the Internet to your computer - should not be able to  
stack the deck in this way. If the Internet is to remain free, and  
freely evolving, it is important that neutrality legislation be passed.

In its current form, Internet service operates in the same  
nondiscriminatory way as phone service. When someone calls your home,  
the telephone company puts through the call without regard to who is  
calling. In the same way, Internet service providers let Web sites  
operated by eBay, CNN or any other company send information to you on  
an equal footing. But perhaps not for long. It has occurred to the  
service providers that the Web sites their users visit could be a  
rich new revenue source. Why not charge eBay a fee for using the  
Internet connection to conduct its commerce, or ask Google to pay  
when customers download a video? A Verizon Communications executive  
recently sent a scare through cyberspace when he said at a  
telecommunications conference, as The Washington Post reported, that  
Google "is enjoying a free lunch" that ought to be going to providers  
like Verizon.

The solution, as far as the I.S.P.'s are concerned, could be what  
some critics are calling "access tiering," different levels of access  
for different sites, based on ability and willingness to pay. Giants  
like Walmart.com could get very fast connections, while little-guy  
sites might have to settle for the information superhighway  
equivalent of a one-lane, pothole-strewn road. Since many companies  
that own I.S.P.'s, like Time Warner, are also in the business of  
selling online content, they could give themselves an unfair  
advantage over their competition.

If access tiering takes hold, the Internet providers, rather than  
consumers, could become the driving force in how the Internet  
evolves. Those corporations' profit-driven choices, rather than  
users' choices, would determine which sites and methodologies succeed  
and fail. They also might be able to stifle promising innovations,  
like Internet telephony, that compete with their own business interests.

Most Americans have little or no choice of broadband I.S.P.'s, so  
they would have few options if those providers shifted away from  
neutrality. Congress should protect access to the Internet in its  
current form. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, says he intends  
to introduce an Internet neutrality bill, which would prohibit  
I.S.P.'s from favoring content providers that paid them fees, or from  
giving priority to their own content.

Some I.S.P.'s are phone and cable companies that make large campaign  
contributions, and are used to getting their way in Washington. But  
Americans feel strongly about an open and free Internet. Net  
neutrality is an issue where the public interest can and should trump  
the special interests.

* Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

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