End of internet as we know it 2012?

[vol7ron]

...All that needs to happen is for code to be injected into the page that registers when a user navigates away from that page or closes the window. Got a smartie who disabled JavaScript to avoid getting billed? It would be just about as simple to serve him a page telling him to turn his JavaScript on whenever he tries to browse instead of taking him to where he wants to go.

Another option would be to force users to install a plugin, ActiveX or otherwise, that will log page clicks and send information back to the ISP....

In both cases, if someone manages to find a way around it, they can simply be cut off - it's not hard to write an automated script that can check for and flag accounts with bandwidth usage registered, but a running balance of $0.00...

All of that doesn't make sense. The problem isn't page clicks, it's the bandwidth used that's costing them money.

What will most likely happen is that they'll turn into a service like the mobile industry. Instead of paying for minutes, you'll be paying for bandwidth. If you go over, you'll be charged more. Not to mention they'll probably have a program where you can monitor it.

They already have the software in place to monitor and cut-people off based on bandwidth, why not refine it instead of making a pay-per-click like software that can just be hacked?

Second of all, it was said "pay-per-click" not pay per page change. What if you used your address bar for all your web navigation, there's no way the company would be able to see how the person navigated away from the page, without capturing the browser events. And if they do that using JavaScript, I'll just use FireFox add-on's to filter it out.

Another thing to consider is that power companies might instead turn into ISPs. I mean think about it:
- They can tunnel a lot more energy
- They already have the network (cabling and infrastructure) in place
- It would be cheaper for them to do it.

Once that happens, it'd just be a matter of time before we start hearing "free internet" again and more government programs to provide it.

 

[Uchiha Sasuke]

we ll think of it this way. if internet ends then half of the citizens will prob boycott their isp and head over to washington to protest it

 

[perpsgt]

The internet is the last bastion of free speech. Corporate interests and the powers that be have too much of a vested interest in seeing the internet restricted to a pay per click/government approved content only type model. The change will most likely be explained away with 'save the children' or 'for your own protection' type reasoning, which sadly, most people will accept.

 

[vol7ron]

Nope. There is too much money in the internet to regulate it as has been said. If people are worried about the national economy now, what type of impact do you think this will have? There are millions of sales/transactions performed daily, the moment you start raising prices on this sort of thing, people will be appalled at having to pay for what should be a "free" service.

Just think about all the people that do online banking, play games, talk to friends, visit google, etc. Charging for internet in that sort of way would be detrimental to the progression of the nation as we know it. Education is probably one of the best things that has come from the internet. Not to mention the big internet companies (E-Bay, Google, Yahoo, Amazon) will lobby the hell out of congress if they do try to pass a bill to regulate.

I think you guys are not looking at the underlying factors that will be brought up. All of this will be considered and they'll eventually decide it won't be okay to do.

 

[perpsgt]

Maybe you are right vol7ron, but at some point I feel that some degree of restriction will be put in place to at least try to control content to a certain level. It is already happening to some extent under more overtly oppressive regimes in China and the like. Why should the West be any different?

 

[vol7ron]

I know this is becoming an old post, but I keep swaying back and forth on what I said. I think with the problems on the internet (mostly torrent/criminal activity/pornography related), this problem might be solved by charging the usage rate. But then with the politics involved, I start thinking that there has to be a really legitimate push to allow such actions.

As for content control. There is already controls established in the USA. Try finding information on making bombs and/or finding child pornography. It's almost impossible - I know because I tried to do research in college. The real struggle is going to be getting around free-speech acts, and defining what an invasion of privacy is. But then think of all those free hosts, or cheap hosts. You can set up a script to send/receive daily information. All of those hosts will be charged and the price reflected in higher hosting costs.

I just think overall charging a variable rate might be bad. It's sort of like Casinos offering free hotel rooms. They'll take a hit on the overnight stay price, but they'll make it back plus some in the food, entertainment, and casino games. When it comes to the economy, I think the free internet is much like a free hotel: get the user online for free, and then let him/her spend that money shopping and playing games.

 

[kirtik]

Well, the only broadband service that runs at a speed over 20 kB/s is BT broadband, which is overpriced and pretty damn sucky compared with other ISPs. And BT are a bunch of lazy so and sos, not willing to spend the cash on replacing our crappy lines. Seriously, this should be enforced by the government; it ain't never gonna happen otherwise.

-Luke.

Apparently, the government is going to try and persuade BT to make the system 'fibre to the street exchange' (like Virgin Media), rather than fibre to the local exchange, which can be over 10 miles away in places. There's an article on BBC news somewhere.

 

[Smith6612]

Apparently, the government is going to try and persuade BT to make the system 'fibre to the street exchange' (like Virgin Media), rather than fibre to the local exchange, which can be over 10 miles away in places. There's an article on BBC news somewhere.

Fiber to the Home is best though! It's a bit more expensive, but it's future proof. My ISP Verizon is spending several billion dollars running fiber optic cabling into all or most of their territories.

 

[jsobeck]

I was looking at this the other day and I think I'll be switching to Verizon as soon as they get fiber optic in my area, my friend in Illinois has it and he's never had the problems I've had with outages and throttling.

 

[Zdroyd]

Pay by download would suck... Sometimes I download files just to see what they are...

Charging monthly or by minute would be the best ways.

Or even better: We should have universal healthcare (oops, I meen Internet) where it comes with the land plot.

 

[Aquarius]

Wow, I thought 2012 was the end of the world...But the end of the internet? now that's too much...

 

[kkenny]

Another thread that has been bumped up. This one is 3 months old. Stop reviving old threads and let them be. Closed.

 

[chappill]

I don't care if the internet dies there's a new version coming out:
http://www.internet2.edu/

So I'm all set =)

 

[callumacrae]

I don't think this is real. It would have been on the bigger news, and all the links eventually go down to one site, which doesn't have a link at all

 

[Odd Thomas]

Ive been reading through the earlier posts about Pay per Click, its a nice idea for big companies but then you get little guys who get annoyed and do exactly what was said - found their own ISP, in the UK there are tons of ISP's all offering great deals, but to be honst, I had to go with a comapny called talk talk, their cheif a guy called Charles Dunston, realised you could give a product cheaply and still maje a profit, so he began by giving away phone calls, all you did was pay line rental and calls to other customers who use the company are free, then he looked at the internet, an dgave that away too...

Thats right talktalk have free broadband in the UK, I have my phone line with them get dree calls to all my familly and the peeps I know best as they are with them and because I pay the line rental I get free broadband, Ive had it for two tears now and cannot fault the service I get, when other companies begin to see how this works, the price of broadband just keeps going down,


I cannot see a pay per click system being viable, instantly hackers would create short cuts around the system and reduce the clicks you have registered, its a poor idea created by a greedy person who is far too paranoid to think that the Internet revolution is a big a change to society as the industrial revolution was 100 years ago, China restrict Internet access on a huge scale but they don't impose the pay per click, I cannot see how a system like that would be used to restrict the freedom of movement/information etc, every click would have to be logged on top of that the authority's can barely register all the Internet sites around never mind the amount of traffic that goes through them.

I heard somewhere that if all the home pages on the Internet were changed into a single room that led to a room per page, it would be 3 or four times bigger than the earth!

Odd

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[firesteel]

The system originally went online on August 4th 1997.

Human decisions were removed from strategic defense.

Skynet began to learn at a geometric rate.

It originally became self aware on August 29th 1997 2:14 am Eastern Time.

In the ensuing panic and attempts to shut Skynet down, Skynet retaliated by firing American nuclear missiles at their target sites in Russia. Russia returned fire and three billion human lives ended in the nuclear holocaust.

This was what has come to be known as "Judgment Day", 2012.

Oh my.

 

[Max1337]

I think using pay-per click wouldnt be such a wise idea for ISP's... As they would loose customers, mostly people who don't like that kind of stuff or idea...
And monitoring everything you do online isnt right, its invasion of privacy... And yet again, being that people wouldn't like the idea.. a lot of companies would loose money, and they would eventually be forced to undo what they done...
The idea is stupid.. and im sure lots of other people will agree with me.
If ISP's think of the result of what this may do....

For one... Blocking ads isnt hard, people can just get proxy server software or any kind of webfiltering software and block out all the ads... which I already do, because ads slow down loading speed of websites...
I have some javascripts 'crunched' on many different websites, rendering them useless...
And have an excellent firewall... I do check the logs on it a lot, and block anything I don't like...
I have noticed my ISP tried to port scan me (through DNS), and I blocked that and switched DNS to OpenDNS, including the use of my own DNS server...
But yea... I don't like this idea of pay-per-click... and I highly doubt the internet will end anytime soon...

 

[TBLAZE]

Yeah I really Doubt they'd start resticting acess or using a pay per click sort of thing because they'd lose money FAST, because for all the demand there also IS alot of supply

 

[ghotel]

If i was ever restricted on the internet the first thing i would do is changed my dns servers and visit any site i want without the payper click.... but seriosly thats going to be impossible and like the chap said above access will become more competitive.