Maybe you've not been paying attention. What with all of the attempts (DRM, rootkits, lawsuits) and laws (DMCA, the pending COPEA,) it has been shown that J. Random Consumer will lube up and bend over for most anything, so long as it is done in little steps. Will the corporation go scorched Earth from day 1? No, day 1 will be much like day -1, and day 2 much like day 1, but day 600? That will be a different story. They can, and possibly will, roll it out slowly, such that very few people will notice the difference until it is too late. Also, the free market only works where there are alternatives. AOL can't charge per email because there are many, many alternatives to AOL. But broadband is a much less competative space, and if all the Telecomms companies smell the same blood in the water, the only choice will be the crippled connection or none at all (it isn't as if an upstart competitor can lay down miles of cable, even if it had the money there are mountains of beaurocracy involved, which is why wired comms is usually a 'natural' monopoly situation.)
And you say it is paranoid conjecture. Conjecture I'll grant you, but honestly, why give the corpoerations the opportunity? Corporations are not people, they have no rights, only statutory privileges we (well, our government) decides to grant them. Why grant them this one?
-={(Astynax)}=-
And you say it is paranoid conjecture. Conjecture I'll grant you, but honestly, why give the corpoerations the opportunity? Corporations are not people, they have no rights, only statutory privileges we (well, our government) decides to grant them. Why grant them this one?
-={(Astynax)}=-