Not being familiar enough with the issue, i don't feel competent to comment deeply. But i will say that the big O throwing it to his corporate masters doesn't surprise me. It's to be expected at this point, isn't it?

And in the grand scheme of things it's not if we hit the socio-economic-political bottom, it's how we get there and whether it's a long or short trip.

Soon you will have no choice on mobile devices.

The women in east Congo are thankful.

Edit: Just looking for a silver lining.

I've been boycotting Apple since the iPod reared it's ugly head, but alas people keep eating it up along with the DRM model and all (its evolutions) that it spawned.

Forgive them for they know not what they are doing? No. Fuck them. They've screwed us all.

continue to still be hyperbolic and we will still be able to read it. A small we, of course, so don't count on going viral. But if you do go viral, google will offer to buy.

that one day soon when I try to open Agonist, or Kos, they just won't open, or be there?

As an internet serf on the ATT/Verizon plantation, I can tell you it is a bitter experience. I live in a rural area of Virginia, a mere 70 miles from the heart of the imperial capital. My internet access is dialup or very slow wireless from an ATT aircard. What is particularly galling is that I live on a county line where the adjacent county is served by a small local telecom that has provided DSL to everyone in that rural county.
The service is expensive, slow and drops frequently.

...if the WikiLeaks story informs us of anything, it's that information is organic and will find a way.

It seems that they're not going to tier wired service, but that mobile devices will be. Is that correct?

Now, i have an iPhone, but only because i needed to renew my mobile contract and it was free with the renewal. Since my neck of the woods doesn't have 3G yet, the phone as a mobile internet device is about worthless. I only connect to the internet with it when i'm at home on my encrypted wifi network. For me it's mostly the combination of a phone, music player and point-n-shoot camera. (I do like having a full keyboard for texting, and a few games are fun.)

I can put plenty of non DRM music on my iPod, not stuff that i buy from Apple, of course, but anything that's mine and brought into iTunes.

So if this is just about mobile devices, i guess i'm not ready to grab my pitchfork. As it stands it takes any site forever to load.

According to SP's interpretation, it's not all about ads on blogs.

Like cable TV, you will have a choice of content you can view for free.

If you want content not approved by the carrier's corporation, you will have to pay extra.

So, if he is correct, Agonist will not be visible, eventually, unless you pay extra to see it.

Netflix is already tanking in my opinion. They seem to be putting their bottom line on streaming TV and movies. Which is fine if this country were connected on high speed internet. But it's not and people still need/desire DVD's. That's why Redbox is booming and it satisfies the immediacy impulse.

The big switch from stores to mailorder DVD's was because Blockbuster et al. were just bending people over on rentals and worse, the late fees. And Netflix capitalized on that. Grandma and grandpa are grasping the switch from VHS to DVD, let along getting a blu-ray player to stream (highly doubt they'll have a spare Xbox, PS3, or Wii laying around). If you only rent 2 DVD's a month, it's still cheaper to go to a storefront or redbox than hitting Netflix (provided you don't hit with late fees).

Netflix isn't bad, yet. They just need to watch their pricing and make sure that they don't end up subsidizing server space with the DVDs. I'm sure they'd prefer to be an all data company and get out of hardcopies, but that's just not where the country is yet.

Every time they get their grubby hands on a golden goose, they immediately try to torture it to death in pursuit of a second egg that day.

_______________________________________________________________

"There'll be one corporation selling one little box
It'll do what you want and tell you what you want
and cost whatever you got" — Greg Brown

I would betcha that if wireless net neutrality was affected, it would immediately be reversed. The world would not accept a US commercial enterprise having control over sites they wish to visit.

No I'm not worried that a company like AT&T appears to have a temporary advantage. Giants, because of their size, have weaknesses and are at times easily toppled!