Content carve up of net begins (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Internet law professor Michael Geist looks at the way that cable firms are starting to shackle the net access they offer.

When cable companies began promoting high-speed internet services nearly a decade ago, many branded them "the internet on cable".

Years later, those services are gradually morphing into "the internet as cable" as broadcasters and service providers steadily move toward the delivery of content online that bears a striking resemblance to the conventional cable model.
***
Cable distributors determine channel choices, geographic distribution, and commercial substitution (typically with input from a broadcast regulator), offer only limited interactivity, and quietly even possess the ability to stop consumers from recording some programs.

Until recently, the internet was precisely the opposite, offering unlimited user choice, continuous interactivity, and technological capabilities to copy and remix content.

That is gradually changing as broadcasters seek to re-assert greater geographic control over their content and service providers experiment with cable-like models for prioritised content delivery.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094020.stm

[nebenaube]

1. exactly why NSAT* must be stopped.... n/t

[Trillo]

3. More info please!

NSAT*?

[MADem]

2. Well, if they do that shit, the next thing you know, there WILL be a work around

that somehow manages to un-invite the ISP providers. When you get too 'blockish' and onerous, people will find a work-around.

Look at the music industry. When I was a kid, the "Top 40" ruled. Everyone knew the songs (even the kids who disdained that 'top 40 crap'--they still knew the songs and the words).

Now most kids don't know what's popular and what isn't. And they all have 'niche' tastes, as well--they aren't all into 'pop' music, like the vast majority was.

They're far less inclined to get what used to be "top forty" copies of songs from their friends, because the ISPs will rip them a new asshole for sharing files. Instead, a lot of them find these new indy bands who give their shit away, instead.

Of course, those bums who generated that 'top forty' business model were looking to make a buck, too--it's just that they weren't QUITE so greedy.

[bemildred]

4. Sheep will get herded around, and fleeced.

People who educate themselves will not.

[GTurck]

5. Embarq

Not too long ago I found out that Embarq offers different speeds of Internet. The more money you pay the faster your connection. Now this may be legal and it certainly makes sense in a marketing fashion but isn't that pretty much the first step in closing the Internet down universally? If you cannot afford the speed how can you go to YouTube, Democratic Underground, etc.? It stinks to high heaven to me.