The End of the Internet?

The future of the Internet is being decided without your inpout. In the U.S. continued lobby action from the telecom sector is eroding the freedom we enjoy now on the web. They envisage the internet as a "private space" controlled by them, subscribed to by you, and certain information pumped through the fast pipe, while other information is relegated to the slow pipe or no pipe at all. You can be sure that peer to peer comunication would be severely curtailed if not eliminated. Be afraid, be aware, be involved. Your futur depends on your actions.
" The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online. "

"Besides their business interests, telephone and cable companies also have a larger political agenda. Both industries oppose giving local communities the right to create their own local Internet wireless or wi-fi networks. They also want to eliminate the last vestige of local oversight from electronic media - the ability of city or county government, for example, to require telecommunications companies to serve the public interest with, for example, public-access TV channels. The Bells also want to further reduce the ability of the FCC to oversee communications policy. They hope that both the FCC and Congress - via a new Communications Act - will back these proposals. "