[ life:revisited 2010 + 1 ]

Well someone call Lucifer, and tell him to put on his little warm booties and hat, its gonna get cold down there. Why you ask? Because, there is actually going to be a serious, un-biased (as best I can), and informative issue talked about today that I think is pertinent to the way we all live our lives. Whether it is shopping, paying bills, or just trying to relax and fit in a few hours of WoW, what do we use everyday? What could be this wide sweeping? Did you read the title of the post?

Tiered Internet. In the articles I am going to link here, you will see some different definitions, but I will try to break it down here a bit. "Tiering" the internet is changing the service levels, download speeds/amounts, traffic types, and filtering content of the Internet and offering it at a different price. **Sort of**. There are many different ways that the tiering would be implemented, and there are many facets to the issue, some that are acceptable, and some could grow into a monster. This idea has been around awhile, and the major players seem to be a large collection of ISPs (Internet Service Providers, they are the companies we pay to access the Internet, such as SBC/AT&T, Verizon), content providers (Such as Google, AOL, Microsoft), and government agencies.

As you can see, there are some heavy hitters involved, with a lot of money to be made or lost in this situation. The beef is essentially this: The ISPs are unhappy with the way their provided services are being used (VoIP, Video Streaming/Downloads, Torrent clients, etc.), and are also looking toward the future usages of the connections to the home (Higher speed fiber, medical and home diagnostic/security applications, etc..) are are proposing to change the service levels of the internet to adapt to these situations, to basically change the way the service is paid for, when different applications are involved.

Now, as you can see, there are bonuses to this situation:
- Medical applications in the home / Home electronic device convergence
- Deliverable Quality of Service (QoS)for some applications
- Faster connections, HD streaming, and improved applications for the "tier" you are on.

There are also some big negatives:
- Blocking of content that is currently being used such as Vonage, Torrent clients/streams, and possibly websites that do not adhere to Terms of Service for your "tier"
- Bandwidth and content download/access caps for websites, files, and applications
- Higher pricing for services we already are using

Now, I am personally against this initiative, because of what I believe the Internet is, and what it represents. I see the Internet as the last free refuge on planet Earth. People from all walks of life, cultures, languages, and creeds can go there and speak their peace on religion, politics, and government, and when they are done, I can buy some Anime DVDs from them on eBay. It allows for free exchange of ideas, without censorship. Now a lot of die hard right-wingers will bring up the terrorist hype. If a terrorist wants to bad mouth the U.S., and say how bad we Americans are, fine, I don't give a shit. I just won't look at his website, just like I don't look at Nazi rhetoric webpages. Now as soon as those organizations use the site as a clear center of a threat, and violent acts arise from it, that is different, and should be given to the courts of the world to decide, and that is another issue. But what if that was circumvented? The Internet has brought wonder, anger, laughter, and sadness to almost everyone in the world. As soon as we change that access, in order for companies and organizations that are already making money hand over fist at our expense, I believe censorship and control of the Internet will no longer rest in the hands of the government (an already questionable group, I know), but since webpages and content will be filtered by the ISP, and that will "theoretically" depend on your "tier", we are handing over censorship control to companies, and they already control enough. As much as I hate terrorism, hate-speech, and pure stupidity, I will still let those people and organziations speak, because it is a human's right to say what he wishes, as long as those words cause no physical harm or death. Verzion censoring webpages for whatever reason they please, citing that you have to pay in order to see them, or maybe not be able to see them at all is something I have a problem with! I have very little love and trust in the government, but I will take endless debate in the government about these issues, instead of suddenly not being able to access something I use because of a "tiered internet" solution. I know that this may sound a stretch, and I realize that, but this idea is just theoretical now, and I would like to hear other views on it. Please comment with what you think on this issue. I am also going to include some links to different articles on this issue. Enjoy, and please comment.

Links:

ArsTechnica:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060117-5996.html
>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060112-5965.html

NewsWeek / MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11433420/site/newsweek/

Freepress.net:
http://www.freepress.net/news/13287

Slashdot.org / Article on the Nation:
>http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/02/1926257&from=rss