Well, if you look around the site, there are quite a few folks who believe that everything will end in 2012, so I guess to them the internet is small
potatoes.
I don't know about anyone else, but it is unlimited access to the internet that keeps me glued to the computer as much as I am.
Limit that or price unlimited access out of my reach and I guess I'll have to start reading books again and shopping at brick and mortar
establishment exclusively.
I think that eventually ISPs are going to have to control bandwidth more strictly because of the P2P explosion and indeed, my ISP, Comcast, does that
by slowing download speeds when P2P software is detected, but this is a solution that is fraught with legal issues that will eventually wind up in
court.
I remember when internet access was much more expensive, you paid by the minute or hour, and speeds were so slow that you could go grocery shopping
while some sites downloaded.
My personal opinion is this. The internet is a wonderful thing. It is the most positive technology that I've witnessed in my lifetime, allowing
that there are many technological advances that make the internet possible, but you get my drift.
The people are getting fed up with inflexible cable TV packages and beginning to scream for menu type systems, where you get what you want and pay for
what you get. Personally, I only use about a tenth of the channels I have. It sucks.
That ad in the article is I presume just a mock up of what an ad of the future might be like. I have heard that in Australia, subscribers must
request full access, but this is a measure to limit access to inappropriate content by minors--a kind of passive protection system if you will.
This kind of model would not bother me. If some people only want limited access to the internet, let them have it, as long as I can still get
unlimited access at a reasonable price and insofar as this is what most consumers want, any move to gouge customers for full access is just going to
force consumers to find something else to do with their time and will in effect be killing the goose that laid the golden egg, besides screwing with
the economy big-time.
Other ATS discussions of this topic.
tinyurl.com...
[edit on 2008/6/2 by GradyPhilpott]
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