RSS Is Internet access a freedom or a privilege?
25 Jan 2006 @01:00Om Malik has an interesting question on his site: Is Internet access a freedom or a privilege?
No, this isn’t about you and your parents. It’s about the ability of the government (specifically, the US Government) to regulate how access is charged. I’ve been seeing some interesting articles pop up in the last few months about the where the Internet is going, or rather, how the access to the Internet might change (for the worse). In short, the Internet might end up being ruled by those who control access to it (i.e. Verizon, Qwest, Comcast, SBC, etc).
Having said that, what’s your opinion?
Welcome to capitalist society, baby. I don’t exactly know what you’re getting at here, but as far as the Internet goes we aren’t guaranteed access to it by the US government. We pay for it, and that makes it a privilege. We’re free to access it to it as long as we can pay for it and as long as people can profit from it. Right now both of those conditions are met (at least for you and I) so I don’t know what you’re worried about.