The Internet: Packaged

Started by Alex September 7th, 2011 1:47 PM
  • 784 views
  • 11 replies

Alex

what will it be next?

Seen December 30th, 2022
Posted December 26th, 2022
6,407 posts
16.4 Years
Right now, if you open up your browser, assuming you haven't got any parental controls activated, you can visit any website you want. Any website is available to you so long as you can type its name in the address bar. This freedom is taken for granted.

What if we had that taken away? What if, now, you had to buy websites just like channels. Gotta buy em in packages. What are your interests? Social Networking, Business, Blogging, Photography? We'll give you a bundle of websites you can visit and you can even pick and choose up to 5 websites you'd want to be able to visit within that genre!

Regulation of the Internet is the future. What do you think of it?

Shiny Celebi

Seen August 25th, 2015
Posted October 17th, 2013
2,377 posts
12 Years
I dont think anyone has a right to tell anyone they cant visit the sites they want unless it had something illegal such as child pornography on it. I think that kind of regulation( forcing people to buy websites in packages is wrong and takes alot of freedom away from people. Most people including myself visit alot of websites, they should only have to pay for the internet service, not use of the sites themselves, that should remain free.
Age 29
Seen November 5th, 2017
Posted November 5th, 2017
3,499 posts
14.9 Years
If the internet ever required EXTRA money I would instantly stop using it, it's as simple as that. I'd spend my days reading angry books instead. We already pay money to our ISP it seems absurd to purchase access to websites on top of that.

Although I am sure if this ever happened, those hacking nerds out there would find a way to bypass it. Technology can never be fully regulated, there's always someone out there who is smart enough to bypass the system.

donavannj

Age 32
Male
'cause it get cold like Minnesota
Seen 4 Days Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
22,513 posts
18.2 Years
I would continue using the commercial internet and proceed to find people who want to create a new network free from commercial interference.

And adding to Vendak's point about bypasses being found, there'd likely be enablers on the service side who disagree with such commercialization.

I do think regulation in the form of internet packages is a terrible idea that stomps out the free flow of information essential to societal and technological advances and just puts huge corporations at a huge advantage.
whoops

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
I don't like this future. I'll admit that I don't think everything under the sun belongs on the internet (e.g., child pornography), but these things can be taken down by ISPs and the law/government when they're found without harming the rest of us.

If I had to pay... I probably wouldn't. I'd just go to those sites which computer savvy people make free with their computer magic. Assuming it couldn't work that way I'd want access to news sites and probably art-related sites. It's kind of ridiculous to try and guess beforehand what sites you'd want access to. I mean, I may need to look up how to cook eggplants and I'm not going to want to pay whatever the price is to get "recipe sites" added to my list of available options just for one look up.

moments.

quixotic

keyholes
Seen January 3rd, 2017
Posted March 13th, 2014
3,406 posts
14.9 Years
If the internet ever required EXTRA money I would instantly stop using it, it's as simple as that. I'd spend my days reading angry books instead. We already pay money to our ISP it seems absurd to purchase access to websites on top of that.

Although I am sure if this ever happened, those hacking nerds out there would find a way to bypass it. Technology can never be fully regulated, there's always someone out there who is smart enough to bypass the system.
This is literally, word for word my view. Maybe not 'angry' books though. xP

But yeah, just to add fuel to the argument, I think this actually could be appropriate / possibly beneficial in relation to sites like pornography and stuff. Only because that is stuff that actually has some benefit by censoring in stopping younger users from accessing it.

That's just one example, I'm sure there would be other ways to try and turn it around so it is a positive force, but if they blocked everything, I wouldn't be a happy camper. :P
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Kura

twitter.com/puccarts

Age 33
Female
London, UK (orig. Toronto, Canada)
Seen August 30th, 2021
Posted August 24th, 2021
10,993 posts
18.7 Years
We're already needing to rent modems and buy bandwidth.. and some sites are blocked- yes. This future is entirely possible in that respect. However.. in Finland and a few other countries, the internet is free (country-wide) and is actually a human right- the right to know and have information. Compare that to somewhere like China and you have pretty big extremes.

Either way this topic is conceivable.. but I don't foresee it- people would indeed protest and I think it'd only be possible in a dictatorship.

However, this happens even here (example is Hulu or sites that say "Sorry you can't view this in your country blahblah" same with netflix having different availabilities for the canadian and us markets.)
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DarkAlucard

Seek me. Call me...

Age 37
Male
México
Seen October 9th, 2018
Posted November 6th, 2017
752 posts
14 Years
Haha, this reminded me of a Mayor of a state in Mexico, which said in an interview that he would prohibit in the state, miniskirts and will regulate the Internet.

Personally I think that Internet regulation can't be 100% as has been handled by several sources. Some pages and services will require a payment, but the great majority will remain free.

Steven

h e l p

Age 30
Male
Ohio
Seen January 4th, 2023
Posted September 11th, 2021
1,380 posts
12.3 Years
Could..we just pay for one site? If so, I'd choose Reddit. If not, I'd have to pick which one that's under.

Either way, I highly doubt something like this would ever happen.
Keep being amazing.
Shiny Pokemon