Oh no! MSNBC reports the Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.
Justice Dept. against ‘Net neutrality’
Several phone and cable companies, such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., have previously said they want the option to charge some users more money for loading certain content or Web sites faster than others.
The Justice Department said imposing a Net neutrality regulation could hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks. It could also shift the “entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers,” the agency said in its filing.
Such a result could diminish or delay network expansion and improvement, it added.
Supporters of Internet regulation have said that phone and cable companies could discriminate against certain Web site and services.
Source: MSNBC
There’s no reason to be worried here. All there is to this is just making sure the Internet remains status quo and isn’t regulated any more than it needs to be. Yes, ISPs will make deals to make sure partner companies’ TV and audio streams are delivered smoothly — that will be the principle feature of a “non-neutral” Internet. But the rest of it, we won’t notice. I work for a group called Hands Off the Internet that includes some ISPs in our coalition, and I can tell you, there’s no desire to block any websites. Not only is there no reason to do so, but it would be terrible business. That certainly one way to make your customers jump ship.
by HOTI Dave (Sep 10, 2007 at 11 PM)