Slashdot Mirror
Pay-to Play and the Tiered Internet
Crash24 writes "According to an article at The Nation, "industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received." " Tiered internet service may be inevitable folks. Brace yourself.
On the other hand, if all service providers band together, we might finally see the feasibility of micropayment, so that a penny is charged to your broadband bill every time you access Slashdot.
Are you mad? I'd go broke in a day!
I hope this isn't the platinium quality service ...
Unless the main providers can create an illegal cartel (and evade government prosecution for doing so)
Kind of like the Republican party?
Well if you RTFA you would have noticed that they're lobbying for congress and the FCC to lift restrictions which refers to telephone service providers as "common carriers." The common carrier thing essentially means they can't discriminate on the kinds of traffic they carry, they must carry all traffic and offer all services to everyone. They want these restrictions lifted so they can peek at what we're trying to do on the internet and limit it if they see fit or unless we pay a fee or a per download rate. In short. RTFA.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
Oh well...ditch the greedy bastards and simply have LAN parties. This is an easy way to cut out having to work from home after hours. The web is cool, but it ain't that cool - especially when I find myself scouring eBay for sweet Warhammer deals for hours upon end. And I pay for that? Tiered access can shove it!
Well... I've been thinking about stockpiling all this bandwidth; I guess it's time to start storing it away for a rainy pay-to-play kinda day. :)
I'll be changing my nick to packet_pincher
Yes, fun game. I have an electronic version of it on my cell phone. Currently in the game I am playing I own Boardwalk and Park place and a few other properties but a bot player has 3 monopolies with houses on them. Unless those virtual dice really roll my way I don't think I will win:(