The latest SCOTUS ruling on cable and broadband internet access really hurt! I was so hoping that cable companies would have to share their lines so that faster broadband internet service would become more affordable and available. Now it appears that corporations will get control of the lines and more is at stake than just affordable access.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3245478SAN JOSE, CALIF. - A pair of Supreme Court rulings this week is stoking fears that the Internet is becoming an ever-more-centralized platform for entrenched corporate interests — the antithesis of the digital commons envisioned by technophiles and civil libertarians.
But others predict that innovation will actually be encouraged by the rulings, because they create a framework of sorts for how to build businesses in the digital age.
The immediate impact of Monday's decisions against broadband provider Brand X Internet and file-sharing companies Grokster and StreamCast Networks will be to discourage entrepreneurs from creating products that compete against telecommunications conglomerates and Hollywood, said Brand X President Jim Pickrell.
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The American Civil Liberties Union argues that the rulings portend a worst-case scenario in which oligopolistic broadband giants control Web sites, e-mail and Internet telephone services.
That could turn the Internet into the opposite of what it is today: an inexpensive forum for public expression easily accessible to independent voices — from bloggers to unaffiliated political candidates.
"No one should think that the free Internet that we currently enjoy is somehow immune from change or guaranteed to stay free," ACLU attorney Chris Hansen said.