“I just got off a media conference call with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg.
They announced a new policy recommendation that would kill the Internet as we know it, if implemented by FCC Chair Julius Genokowski and other policy makers.
The Google/Verizon deal (also posted online) basically says:
- The old “wireline” Internet that will be irrelevant in a few years? We propose a “new, enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices” on that.
- New “wireless services” (aka the entire future of the Internet)? No equivalent nondiscrimination rules for that, but we’ll “create enforceable transparency rules.” That way, as Americans lose access to the free and open Internet, they can visibly watch it go away.
- Just in case “wireless services” doesn’t encompass the entire future of the Internet, a new class of “new services” is envisioned, which Schmidt and Seidenberg actively differentiated from “the public Internet.” Basically, through private contracting, big corporations could deal directly with the Verizons and AT&Ts of the world to create the next YouTube, maybe dangle it without discrimination to the public just long enough for us to be hooked, and then discriminate like hell over it. But don’t worry, the FCC will “monitor the development of these services.”
Google, a company that I’ve long admired and currently hold thousands of dollars of stock in, just “went evil.””
Full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-green/breaking-google-goes-evil_b_676021.html
Also you can read in depth review in Wired:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/google-verizon-propose-open-vs-paid-internets/
conshmillo 6:29 pm on August 9, 2010 545 days ago Reply
Now droids will start discovering the truth. They thought Apple is evil because because it unapologetically charges for it’s products and they thought Google is great because it pushes open source they (droids) develop and offer for free. Now they are discovering that Apple is just straight forward and not double faced. That Apple works hard on their stuff and sell it for right price to pay for those efforts. Where Google is double faced evil – pretending to be open source champion, luring people to be dependent on their services with their “goodness”, but when time is right they just turn on them for profit. Now don’t forget Google collects data on you every day. They know you probably better than you know yourselves. And they will be offering that info to every advertiser that is willing to pay. Google just took that garbage bin full of trash and dumped it on heads of those faithful droids that had been standing up for Google and it’s Android all over the Internet. And I am pretty sure this is not the end of it. They are just getting started. And it is what will eventually kill them. Schmidt is Google’s Sculley. He will run them to the ground.
Nicu 11:40 am on August 11, 2010 544 days ago Reply
“It no longer made financial sense for Google to fight the carriers with its own open phone hardware, even though that meant abandoning its open wireless principles. In retrospect, they may have never actually been principles ‚Äî just an aborted marketing strategy that proved unnecessary.”
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/why-google-became-a-carrier-humping-net-neutrality-surrender-monkey/
rastard 1:17 pm on August 11, 2010 544 days ago Reply
@nicu
Best article title ever.