Will corporations/right wing groups eventually own the internet?

and yes, our media access is controlled by ultra-conservatives.

that they defy descriptions like "conservative" or "liberal" they are a tiny, exclusive interest group unto themselves and use those who think small enough to label themselves "conservative" or "liberal" as pawns on a chess board where the gaol of the game is to amass as much wealth/ power as possible and to ensure that this wealth/ power is passed on, not to the "rabble" but rather, to those who are already in the club- those who with the education and "upbringing" to know what's "best" for the rest of us.

And YES they will control the internet. The internet as we have known it is a fluke. An aberration caused by a technological leap forward but those in power are quickly catching up. It began in the mid nineties with the radical commercialization of the internet. It's just a matter of time.

usually indicates that the writer believes "this-thing" and "that-thing" to be different things.

(Of course, if you believe the overlap percentage in this case to be less than 75%, I'd like to sell you the merchandise depicted below.)

We are just the necessary fuel for the engine.
American citizens are merely "consumers"
Automotive technicians are merely "installers."
There many other coded examples of the attitude of providers of goods and services toward the animals at the other end of the system.

I say within 5 years the internet will be owned.

Yes. I see no reason it wouldn't be. While I wouldn't mind a little more anarchy in our lives, recorded history is full with stories of decentralized ways of life being sucked into the grip of power and centralized. Something may come after the internet, but that'll be treated the same way. Then that dance will continue for the rest of time.

I wish I thought otherwise, but they'll own it. The internet is a threat to their control of our access to information. With all the time, money and effort they've put into consolidation they aren't going to give up without a fight just because a new technology came along.

I'm afraid that we'll fight it, eventually get distracted and we'll lose. Heck, the biggest threat to us at the moment has already been all but lost behind other scandals and problems and it's just sitting there waiting for us to lose interest. It's already passed committee, then a floor vote and it's done. The nation is too easy to distract but the lobbyists and such aren't.

What makes anyone think they don't?

I'm really confused. I work for a large telecommunications firm and I guess I'm shocked to learn that people don't understand that 95% of all the fiber in the ground that carries internet traffic and 95% of all the routers and switches controlling the internet are owned by corporations. (At least in the US at least...)

Who did you all think owned all that stuff, Uncle Sam?

They own the lines but in the past have been restricted from tampering with the information, what they stand to gain is control of both.

by "tampering with the information"? As I said, I work in telecom. There is aboutly nothing illegal about me messing with the information that flows across the fiber my corporation owns. The reason that I and nobody else would ever do it is because we would get fired in a heartbeat. It's the fear of losing customers, not government action, that keeps the internet secure.

On edit: Perhaps I should be more clear. There probably are contractual penalties involved if I were to mess with somebody's bandwidth, but those penalties are the product of private negotiations, not federal or state law.

What we need are common carrier laws, ones that give the telecoms full and fair payment for the service of the lines but no control over the information on those lines.

What we're edging toward is the ability of companies to control and restrict information rather than just transmitting it. AOL recently filtered all mail that referred to a web page critical of AOL, that wasn't protecting them from spammer, it was protecting nothing but AOL's bottom line. Expand that type of abuse with new laws being proposed and a carrier can decide that a given firm gets good service and others get the slow lane, eventually we end up with something more similar to cable TV than to what we have on the internet today.

I don't want them deciding what gets good service and what goes off to "public access" of sorts, I'd rather we do.

that separates it from the TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, to which access is allowed only to those with severe rightist ideological bent, and token "liberals" like Clarence Page who never say anything very controversial or partisan.

they are going to be far too busy in courts for the next 8-20 years, and that's not counting jail time.

:thumbsup:

Companies like Google, Cisco, IBM and probably soon Microsoft are starting to become very, very interested in who controls the data pipes.

Right now we are seeing the big pipe providers, the Telecos and Cable Cos. trying to build an income source from the data streaming across their pipes.

Right now we are also seeing the big data providers starting to dip their toes, and Millions of dollars of cash, into "alternative" data delivery methods, mostly wireless. My guess is that in the near future, we will start seeing the Millions turn into the Billions.

The good thing about this is that these are companies who's revenue stream depends more on an open internet than a tightly controlled internet.

If we let it happen...