jpeps wrote:Moose On The Loose wrote: It seems to be one of those unstoppable forces of nature that new media starts open and gradually becomes closed.
Ultimately, public opinion wins out.
A solid majority don't like a whole lot of things that have happened. Public opinion only wins when that opinion results in a strongly enough motivated public. When there is a special interest that is strongly motivated in the other direction, the public very often loses out.
It's even happening in North Korea to some extent
The government of N. Korea enjoys very strong public support. The public gets its "news" from a very biased source.
A government has to keep the public believing that they are being protected to survive, so they get a bit concerned if people start communicating amongst themselves.
Yes, and this is a reason for the government to throw there weight in with the corporations. Both want to prevent the public from talking among themselves. Corporations want to be able to sell you the videos and/or sell your viewing to the advertisers. Those in government want to get re-elected. Corporations hire lobbyists and also pay for campaign ads etc to get the people they want into office so to get re-elected the politicians want to play ball with the corporations.
We can see that with the NSA and Snowden
Actually, the NSA listened in. They did not prevent communications they copied communications and this is totally off the topic of net neutrality.
The problem is the idiots who believe that government agencies will act in their best interests.
The problem is the idiots who believe that corporations will act in their best interests.
They want to end up with all the money. That is what they care about. That is all they care about. Legally it is the required nature of a publicly traded corporation to be exactly like that. If the folks running it do not work to optimize stock value, they are committing a crime.
Your access to the competitor is blocked and thus you either buy from your ISP or not at all.
Unlikely we're going back to the days of government sanctioned telecommunication monopolies[/quote]
No, we are going to go like radio and TV are. A few large corporations will control the whole thing and you can get your internet from them on their terms or live in a cave. The oldest form of radio is the AM dial. Check out how many corporations control almost all of the AM dial. That is the way the trend goes over time.