End of the internet as we know it?
The FTC has ruled against maintaining net neutrality. ISPs will now be able to charge for priority access. For those of us who run independent blogs, websites, or internet based or enhanced businesses, we can now expect our readers, viewers, and customers to have to wait and endure slow access to our sites while those some readers, viewers, and customers, will have zippy access to corporate customers who are willing to pay money to the big ISPs. This is the likely outcome. A possible outcome is that ISPs may choose to just block any website that won’t pony up the fee. So much for “information wants to be free”.
The FTC made this ruling in spite of pretty massive popular outcry against it. The FTC has advised congress against legislating to the contrary under the current Bush doctrine of requiring a demonstrated and documented “market failure” before putting any regulations into effect.
