Here is an article by Elliot Cohen (Web of Deceit: How Internet Freedom Got the Federal Ax, And Why Corporate News Censored the Story). It explains how a (sadly under-reported) recent Supreme Court decision has grave implications for our current democracy friendly, open-access Internet. Here is a bit about the decision:
On June 27, 2005, in a 6 to 3 decision (National Cable & Telecommunications Association vs. Brand X Internet Services) the United States Supreme Court ruled that giant cable companies like Comcast and Verizon are not required to share their cables with other Internet service providers (ISPs). The Court opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, was fashioned to serve corporate interests. Instead of taking up the question of whether corporate monopolies would destroy the open-access architecture of the Internet, it used sophistry and legally-suspect arguments to obscure its constitutional duty to protect media diversity, free speech, and the public interest.
The central problem is that the corporations controlling the major nodes of the Internet will no longer have to allow independent ISPs onto their systems. The law had required these corporations to do that ("common-carriage" law). So now companies like Verizon and Comcast can begin to monopolize the Internet. The only ISPs available will be their ISPs. Smaller independent ISPs will not be able to compete. The large cable companies will then have control over what you have access to. The end of open-access Internet is upon us. You will not have access to non-corporate controlled, independent sources of information. What you will have access to will be up to these corporations -- a private decision -- guided, of course, by their private interests. They will be able to filter what you have access to. Take a look at what China is doing right now with the Internet, and you will get an idea of what could happen to us.
It is very sad that there has been very little media coverage of this, if any. A very important decision has been made about the architecture of the Internet, and there has been no significant public debate about it. That is sad because the decision could have extremely negative consequences for our democracy.
So what will you do when you see these private corporations slowly closing the open-access architecture of the Internet?
