Off Topic · O.T 2012: The Year The Internet Ends (page 1)

http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality


06/01/2008 - Every significant Internet provider around the globe is currently in talks with access and content providers to transform the internet into a television-like medium: no more freedom, you pay for a small commercial package of sites you can visit and you'll have to pay for seperate subscriptions for every site that's not in the package.

Almost all smaller websites/services will disappear over time and multinationals who are used to using big budgets to brute force their content into every media outlet will finally be able to approach the internet in the same way.

Internet providers have realized that the only way to not lose massive amounts of customers over this is to make sure there are no alternatives, that's why all major Internet providers are currently making agreements and planning to switch simultaneously somewhere in the year 2012. This is currently all going on under very strict NDA's (Non-Disclosure Agreements) because the last thing they want is the masses speaking out against it.

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Watch the Video this isn't a joke.


[Edited by - playa2 on 03-06-2008 06:30]

So what, we'll all just adapt like we did with internet in the first place, cell phones, satellite dish services, ...

You don't get it obviously, the internet will look more like tv, they will charge you extra for sites like this, those new charges will cut visitors views and the sites like this will shutdown with no vistors.

world wide

we can always go back to the old school style of communication.

it is a joke, because there is no way it will happen

Posted by fishmike:

it is a joke, because there is no way it will happen

You forget what times we are living in, people are greedy.

Watch the video.

I am just showing that this issue is for real so enjoy what you can of this soon to be vanished tool that is more useful than any other communication outlet that has ever been devised.

Big brother can't afford to have anyone thinking for themselves you know.



[Edited by - playa2 on 03-06-2008 09:11]

Right.

Playa,

Maybe if they start charging more you'll stop reading every conspiricy theory.

Honestly, I can believe there are companies that want this to happen and may be actually pursuing it, but the public outcry would be incredible. They would basically have to get everyone to signup secretly and then just spring it on us. While not impossible, it is highly doubtfully any group of companies could get this accomplished without the public finding out about it.

The whole world is changing, in a big, big way. Like Frenchknicks said, we'll adapt.

Rather than worry about it, or bitch about it, why don't you figure out a way to be a part of it. Besides, people don't talk face to face anymore and I'd be happy if we got away from some of this artificial communication anyway. Some of you don't even know what that's like.

I can't even say hello or smile at a pretty woman anymore walking down the street, not without her hand constantly stuck to the side of her head with a cell phone. We've been dummied down as social human beings. Take your pick.

I think we're actually closer to having internet via free services than we are privately controlled internet.

Posted by nyk4ever:

I think we're actually closer to having internet via free services than we are privately controlled internet.

But net neutrality might limit the access we get with free services as well.

I don't say it's going to happen, but it wouldn't surprise me. The pharmaceutical companies control medicine in this country, the defense contractors and oil companies can get the government to start ridiculous wars.

Posted by nyk4ever:

I think we're actually closer to having internet via free services than we are privately controlled internet.

Free net has always been a huge billboard for all advertisers. That's what the trade off has always been. So it will come down to big business relying on free for Ads, or take a chance on shutting it all down and charging everyone at will.

And we're forgetting about the most important thing here. The United States does not own' the Internet. Nobody does. And then there are the different satellite owners who don't support this kind of thing. So even if a part of the Internet gets reconfigured and we have to pay, there will always be others who will continue to do the free for ads thing.

But hey' we've seen the Internet shut down huge music stores and threatening to shut down chain book stores also. So anything can happen. Good or bad for everyone.

And let's not forget, that a lot of our Internet is as institutionalized, into the fabrics of our systems and will not be an easy task to just shut it down and drastically change it. How many of us rely on it for what we do with many things in our lives today? So many things. You compile the cost of living with a conspiracy like that' and we all' have big problems.

And I have no doubt some things will change. It all comes back to adjusting to it with time, just like we have always done.

Big business understands how addictive people(sheeple) are to the internet.

In Texas, meter starts running on Internet

By Peter Svensson - ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — You’re used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance?

Time Warner Cable customers — and, later, others — may have to, if the company’s test of metered Internet access is successful.

On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated Press.

Metered billing is an attempt to deal fairly with Internet usage, which is very uneven among Time Warner Cable’s subscribers, said Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president of advanced technology.

Just 5 percent of the company’s subscribers take up half of the capacity on local cable lines, Leddy said. Other cable Internet service providers report a similar distribution.

“We think it’s the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure,” Leddy said.

Metered usage is common overseas, and other U. S. cable providers are looking at ways to rein in heavy users. Most have download caps, but some keep the caps secret so as not to alarm the majority of users, who come nowhere close to the limits. Time Warner Cable appears to be the first major ISP to charge for going over the limit: Other companies warn, then suspend, those who go over.

Phone companies are less concerned about congestion and are unlikely to impose metered usage on DSL customers, because their networks are structured differently.

Time Warner’s tiers will range from $29.95 a month for relatively slow service at 768 kilobits per second and a 5-gigabyte monthly cap to $54.90 per month for fast downloads at 15 megabits per second and a 40- gigabyte cap. Those prices cover the cable portion of subscription bundles that include video or phone services. Both downloads and uploads will count toward the monthly cap.

A possible stumbling block for Time Warner Cable is that customers have had little reason so far to pay attention to how much they download from the Internet, or know much traffic makes up a gigabyte. That uncertainty could scare off new subscribers.

Those who mainly do Web surfing or e-mail have little reason to pay attention to the traffic caps: a gigabyte is about 3,000 Web pages, or 15,000 e-mails without attachments. But those who download movies or TV shows will want to pay attention. A standard-definition movie can take up 1.5 gigabytes, and a high-definition movie can be 6 to 8 gigabytes.

Time Warner Cable subscribers will be able to check out their data consumption on a “gas gauge” on the company’s Web page.

The company won’t apply the gigabyte surcharges for the first two months. It has 90,000 customers in the trial area, but only new subscribers will be part of the trial.

Billing by the hour was common for dial-up service in the U. S. until AOL introduced an unlimited-usage plan in 1996. Flat-rate, unlimited-usage plans have been credited with encouraging consumer Internet use by making billing easy to understand.

“The metered Internet has been tried and tested and rejected by the consumers overwhelmingly since the days of AOL,” information-technology consultant George Ou told the Federal Communications Commission at a hearing on ISP practices in April.

Metered billing could also put a crimp in the plans of services like Apple Inc.’s iTunes that use the Internet to deliver video. DVD-by-mail pioneer Netflix Inc. just launched a TV set-top box that receives an unlimited stream of Internet video for as little as $8.99 per month.

Bend Cable Communications in Bend, Ore., used to have multitier bandwidth allowances for Internet customers but abandoned them in favor of an across-the-board 100-gigabyte cap. Bend charges $1.50 per extra gigabyte consumed in a month.

http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/361...

It doesn't matter cuz the world's gonna end in 2012 anyway.

Posted by BasketballJones:

It doesn't matter cuz the world's gonna end in 2012 anyway.

i dont think the world would end by 2012, but something major is suppose to hapen according to the mayan calendar......hopefully by then we will know the origin of the cloverfield project

Posted by Bobby:

Posted by BasketballJones:

It doesn't matter cuz the world's gonna end in 2012 anyway.

i dont think the world would end by 2012, but something major is suppose to hapen according to the mayan calendar......hopefully by then we will know the origin of the cloverfield project

the mayan's know the internet is gonna charge more!

Actually I can see payment going up.

Im gonna get a Sonos unit and start streaming more music. I'll pay for it, use a rapsody or other service. I already have Sat radio in the cars.

I'll buy less music but still pay.

For us to stream unlimited (almost) music, video instead of renting discs, the increased amount of bandwith will need to be increaed.

This is not the man sticking it to us, its increased usage and capacity.

Posted by Nalod:

Posted by Bobby:

Posted by BasketballJones:

It doesn't matter cuz the world's gonna end in 2012 anyway.

i dont think the world would end by 2012, but something major is suppose to hapen according to the mayan calendar......hopefully by then we will know the origin of the cloverfield project

the mayan's know the internet is gonna charge more!

Actually I can see payment going up.

Im gonna get a Sonos unit and start streaming more music. I'll pay for it, use a rapsody or other service. I already have Sat radio in the cars.

I'll buy less music but still pay.

For us to stream unlimited (almost) music, video instead of renting discs, the increased amount of bandwith will need to be increaed.

This is not the man sticking it to us, its increased usage and capacity.

hahaha. Joking aside, I don't think the internet as we know it will end but this is a legitimate threat to the structure of the Internet Nalod. Net Neutrality is a big deal, atleast in my field. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neu... when you get a chance. The video is an exaggeration of this article. China already censors the internet (great firewall of China) and the middle eastern emirates have banned VoIP. Its not as far fetched as some might think and it can be done.

PS: Its scary how often I am agreeing with playa lately. God help us, right playa? I mean, we used to go back and forth about Jeff Van Gundy (who is one of the best coaches the Knicks have had in a decade) and now we are on the same side of the fence!