The US Justice Department (the guys who brought you warrantless wiretapping, Guantanamo bay, the political firing of District Attorneys, and, uhhh, Alberto “Amnesia” Gonzales) has, in what one would like to think was a shock move but on consideration was only mildly less inevitable than death/taxes, declared that it is against net neutrality. In short, the “Justice” Department (those inverted commas may have the air of a sophomore socialist gathering, but sometimes that’s OK) says it’s OK for ISPs to charge more for priority internet content.
So, that’s pretty much it, folks. There’ll be a two-tier internet by the end of this decade, most likely, with rich folks and corporations getting full speed and the rest of us scmucks returning to what, in my more fevered imaginings, I see as a sort of pre-dial-up state wherein web transactions are reduced to something akin to morse code. Though the next US Presidential election may change things, for the moment, get ready to bid a tearful farewell to the web as you know it: all over, gone, goodbye thanks for playing, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
On the bright side it should encourage a kind of digital class struggle.
Great for community building.
workers of the world, you have nothing to lose but your bittorrents…