I'm alarmed by the possibility of cable dominating broadband access and then cable companies limiting access to web sites as they see fit. They could simply deny access for, say, a web site that competes with one of their media companies or, say, one that disagrees with their political POV.
Instead of being a peer-to-peer kind of system for relatively low-cost communication from anyone to anyone, it could become more like a broadcast medium like television or radio.
I don't have the exact sources but I understand that some public tv affiliates are being denied access to cable networks. Al Gore is having problems getting cable access as well and is apparently getting a 20 million user channel rather than a 40 million user channel which is considered the minimum required for success.
If Amazon, Microsoft and the ACLU are on the same side, something's going on.
mediaaccess.org
"Will the Internet of the future look something like cable television today, with pre-selected content foisted on users and access to unaffiliated channels of information limited or blocked?
That's the fear of a host of third parties ranging from the Microsoft Corp. to the American Civil Liberties Union as the Federal Communications Commission contemplates the regulation of broadband...
Right now, more than 15 million American households use a broadband connection to access the Internet. Cable modems are the most popular means of transmission, with almost 70 percent of the market...
In March, the FCC made a key decision: that cable broadband is an interstate information service rather than a telecommunications service.
The decision, which is being challenged by consumer groups in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is important because, as an information service, cable has no common carrier obligation to share its lines with competitors...
In a dissenting statement, Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps noted that the decision "places [cable broadband] services outside any viable and predictable regulatory framework."
DSL broadband is currently subject to a different -- and far more stringent -- set of FCC regulations than cable. That's because DSL is provided by telephone companies, and telephone services have historically been subject to heavy FCC regulation...
In mid-November, the Coalition of Broadband Users and Innovators was formed when the National Association of Manufacturers, the Consumer Electronics Association, and the Information Technology Association of America teamed up with individual companies including Microsoft, Apple Computer, Amazon.com, the RadioShack Corp., and the Walt Disney Corp. The coalition's unlikely third leg is the Media Access Project, a liberal First Amendment consumer advocacy group.
The coalition shares the fears of the ACLU and the Consumer Federation of America, as well groups such as the AARP and the United Church of Christ over the future of the Internet if cable and DSL providers are given free rein..."
fcc.gov |
