Internet metering and net neutrality

I’ve found myself (possible due to the number of podcasts I listen to) thinking a lot about net neutrality recently.  For those unaware, net neutrality is the idea that the internet should be kept “neutral,” or completely “free” (as in speech, not beer necessarily).  For example, it’s recently been a hot topic for ISPs and search engines to serve ads directed to your interests.  Google is actually already doing this.  Now, I have no problem with Google looking at my searches and taking that data and looking for ads related to that data.  No problem whatsoever.  I think it’s a little intrusive when they take my search history as a whole and use that for ads, but I have given them explicit permission to do that.  They give you that option.  (It’s a little handy too.)  But, when I read my Gmail, I can see ads that are directed to the email that I’m reading.  That might be a little over-the-top.  You can sway me either way, though.

Now, I really do not like this idea of ISP’s monitoring internet usage.  It’s just not right.  They give us the service, that’s it.  My dad is paying AT&T (fortunately not one of the ISP’s considering this [AFAIK]) a good $25 a month.  They’d darn well not be snooping in on what I’m browsing and then selling that out to advertisers (such as DoubleClick).  I’m going to switch ISP’s until I get an ISP that will give me an honest service, not this selfish, intrusive service that Comcast and Time Warner want to provide.  ISP’s are utilities, gateways.  Certainly not media in itself.  They don’t have any place in seeing what pages I’m visiting on the Web, and they difinitely have no business in selling my Web browsing history off to advertisers WITHOUT MY CONSENT.  Google is doing this because I allow them to.

Also there’s this issue of metering.  Metering is the act of limiting internet use in the form of a cap, services that can be casses, and/or “tiers.”  Comcast does two of the three.  A bandwith cap would either charge extra or completely cut off service after hitting the cap.  comcast has something like a 250GB cap, and Time Warner is considering implementing a much more diciculous cap based on the service you have.  The premium service would have a 40GB cap, adn the other services would have (I think) a 5GB cap.  I can deal with a 250GB cap, maybe a 40GB cap, but I would exhaust a 5GB cap in a matter of days.  I do a little legal Bittorrenting, but no illegal.  I just use the Web and download more stuff than the average Joe.  Comcast has also been in the news for blocking Bittorrent use.  I’d liket o make a point here: Bittorrent has many legitmate uses, such as Linux.  Bittorrent is not evil, it’s just that some people use it for illegal purposes.  In any case, it’s not the ISP’s prerogative to stop “illegal” activities.  Although I’m tempted, I won’t start on my position about the RIAA and the MPAA and DRM.

A new idea is having “tiers.”  Say, for $10 a month, you could visit the top 100 websites.  For $20 a month the top 1,000, and then maybe an unlimited tier for $60 a month or something like that.  Now, I don’t think that I know of one person who will say this is a good idea.  I want to have choice in what I read and what I view.  I don’t want some ISP telling me what I can and cannot view.  Once again, it’s not their prerogative.  Anyway, if an ISP does try this, they’ll fail.  If they’re going to do that, I’m not going to pay them.  I’ll just go to an ISP that doesn’t do the tier thing.  They might catch on that tiers aren’t a good idea eventually.

Okay, did I cover everything?  Good.  Now, you might need to read this all again.  Go right ahead.