This article features Barry Diller (an expert?) claiming that in the future users will have to pay to use much of the internet. This is something which doesn’t seem in the ordinary person’s interest, and would certainly put a damper on one of the late 20th/ early 21st centuries’ bright spots.
But what is this person really trying to say? And who does he represent?
What he actually seems to be referring to is people having to pay for some high quality sources which require significant resources to produce. The New York Times is specifically mentioned, which was previously a newspaper for which the reader had to pay.
It seems a bit more a of a stretch to think that many sites such as blogs and small sites (which are often what makes the internet interesting) would require payment.
And Diller also mis-states something when he says that the internet is free- don’t forget people have to pay for their connection. It is just like cable TV- you have to have a TV (the corollary of the computer) and then you pay for the cable connection and a standard package of TV channels (the corollary of access to the internet).
Which reminds me of another gloom and doom item about the internet: in this case, on one Indy Media Center site, an organization was alleging that corporations have plans to make people pay to use a limited range of websites, marginalizing and perhaps making it impossible to access smaller independent sites. The person/ group posting this claimed that the discussions were all secret among major corporations. I was concerned about this and wrote to the group posting it asking for more details. But they didn’t reply, making me doubt the validity of the original post.
We can certainly hope that these claims are false. Limiting the internet or making it more expensive to use would certainly be an unpopular move, and against the popular interest.
China, meanwhile, has announced that at the end of July, all computers sold in China will have to be sold with a program installed which the authorities claim will be to prevent viewing violent and pornographic sites. This makes their controls over citizen’s online activities potentially even more complete. (See this link) Ironically however, I thought it may lead to a decrease of computer sales in China as people may deliberately purchase computers abroad to avoid the program installation.
In any case, it seems like attacks on the internet, and attempts to limit its impact and influence are continuous; and these challenges need to be addressed by people to protect their right to access to information and maintain the free nature of the internet medium.
