Internet Censorship: First Canada Then The World

[poynt99]

sounds pretty scary, but it will never happen.

if there's one thing the big guys can't pull on us its the free internet.

maybe they'll try something like this, but it won't fly, the public at large won't buy into it. in fact i'm sure there will be one hell of a protest and outcry if even an attempt is made.

i think we're safe.

[utilitarian]

Personally I intend to boycott the net when it happens.

All " news and information" will come through the TV.

Your cubicle here...

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/canada_net_censorship.html

Hogwash.  Nothing of the sort is happening.  I challenge you to find independent corroboration of this from a reputable news source.

The desire to end net neutrality is real, and there are certainly consumer drawbacks to what the ISPs want to do.  For example, if you are a heavy P-to-P user, you may not be able to get the bandwidth you like for that activity, or be forced to pay more to get your bandwidth.  But normal web browsing is not going to be restricted to just a few websites.  ISPs care about maximizing bandwidth and thereby profits.  They do not care which website you go to.  But they do care if some users use a disproportionately large amount of bandwidth with file sharing, online games, watching high-bandwidth video, you get the idea.  But normal, low bandwidth HTTP traffic, nobody cares if you go to cnn.com or overunity.com or whatever.

If you want net neutrality, fine, it is a good thing to have, but but this article is just scaremongering.  However, I do find your response (boycotting the Internet!) humorous and a little ironic.

[Shiver]

I often think that Internet in its present form was never meant to happen, and will be looked back upon as the pivotal moment in history when all 'their' plans got de-railed, and civilisation took a different path.

[Cap-Z-ro]

I have predicted that since the net was up and running Shiver...or was it a desperate last hope?

Hope you and I were right.

Turn off the TV and vote with your feet.

Regards...

[retroworm]

Only recently in finland, few groups rammer through legislation that allows police to block websites without notifying the site owner. It was all done in the shadow of preventing the spread of child pornography, and that's probably what it's used for the most, but it also gives them means to arbitrarily block web pages from the general users. No court order needed, and the victims have very little say on it. What's even more scary is that they've already used the system to silence some of its critics. Ironically enough, it's been demonstrated that the system can be used to SEARCH for child p0rn sites.

[edit] does this board have some triggerhappy profanity filter?