The End of Digital Democracy

Stuart Park writes: "According to this article, this year could be very important for media ownership and internet access with a lot of pressure on the FCC and the U.S. Government to remove restrictions thus allowing a small number of large corporations to control everything. Help stop it happening via this link."

Comments

Connectivity becoming linked to content

[Kirruth]

This is a very important issue (not that you'd know it from the number of responses so far!). What this is really about is letting the people who provide the connectivity for broadband connections (the cable companies and telcos) also control the content (ISP services and portals).

What this means is that they can control the portal you use, the sites you might look at. If they see you trading MP3's they can shut you down. It's about turning the open internet into a giant corporate intranet.

And you won't be able to go to someone else, because in your town there might not be someone else.

The openNet coalition goes into more details. Worth getting informed about.

Niches & Profits

[Annoying]

There are some industries that can't support very many companies due to the markets they serve. If a company gains 50% in a niche that 5 companies compete in but none of them can make a profit off their marketshare (including the company with 50%) then they would all fail. The niche wouldn't be served and for trying to limit the market share a company could gain, the consumer would have been hurt. Even some major industries can't support very many companies, aircraft for instance, how many large aircraft manufacturing copmanies are there? In the world?

I think when it comes to media though there are already too few companies. Loosening restrictions to allow even fewer to dominate the market doesn't sound like a good thing. Just had to point out a flaw in your view.

One can't help but notice..

[billn]

The ratio of response to this post, as compared to any others today, is incredibly small. Could this be indicative of a general user base that doesn't understand the issues, or simply doesn't care?

The internet in general has given us unprecedented access to information and learning tools, but simple human factors keep it sitting on the digital shelves: People simply don't care.

Until such time as it takes away the things we take for granted, people will not notice or care, aside from an enlightened subset (for example, the 9 posts here before me.) But by then, it'll be too late.