Internet Close to Shutdown:

Is the Internet as we know it about to be closed down? Mitch Ratcliffe at ZDNet certainly thinks so. The Republican controlled government is about to close down what has been called "net neutrallity" with legislation that will allow service providers, who already make a fortune, to not only charge fees according to content but also to censor the content available to us.

According to Ratcliffe,

Carriers are already free to charge for dedicated services. The Internet is not architected on a foundation favorable for dedicated services, which is where the carriers want to ghettoize Web services that won't pay a surcharge for their success. At the same time, the carriers enjoy monopoly or duopoly pricing power at both ends of their network. All the Senate is doing is clearing the way for carriers, which are already very profitable, to make more money without any additional investments in improved services.

Pro-carrier advocates like to argue that it is the telco and cable companies' network so they should be able to do with it what they want. Indeed, we've handed it over to them in a tragic giveaway to duopolists that fight any upstart network or network service. It's their network now.

You can read the proposed legislation here.