Were you, by chance, surfing the Internet yesterday?
Did you notice a small tremor on the Web?
Well, there was a tremor… a legal tremor… And that tremor could send shockwaves through the Internet in the years to come.
The legal shockwave in question concerns the large Internet provider Comcast. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was punishing Comcast for blocking users’ access to BitTorrent, a file sharing website. (You know, for swapping movies, music and the like.) Comcast complained to the courts and won. Their victory has broad implications.
Comcast, or another broadband provider, can now “restrict consumers’ ability to access certain kinds of Internet content.” Do you watch videos on Hulu.com or using Google’s YouTube service? What if Comcast or others charged you to view these sites? Or charged you you for being a heavy web surfer? It could now happen!
Some web giants are against the ruling. Google, Microsoft, and other big producers of Web content have argued that such controls or pricing policies would thwart innovation and customer choice.
A broadband company could, for instance, ink a deal with Microsoft to transfer all attempts to reach Google.com to Bing.com. The only recourse a user would have, under the ruling, would be to switch to a different provider — assuming, of course, they had an alternative to switch to.
We are not happy with this approach to the web… But what do you think?
