Will Smith—not your friend.

Will Smith is not your friend. I'm not talking about the Will Smith that fights aliens and killer robots (he seems pretty helpful and friendly), but rather the BellSouth CTO Will Smith. He needs to go in the corner with AT&T (formerly SBC) CEO Edward Whitacre. This article in the WaPo details how they want to give internet traffic priority based on who's willing to shell out the bucks. Say goodbye to your favorite two-bit weblog. Gigi Sohn of Public Knowledge correctly states that "If we want to ruin the Internet, we'll turn it into a cable TV system". The telecoms want to turn the most important democratizing force in modern history into a fascist state. Nice going, telecoms.

I've added Will Smith to my new Hall of Villainy.

Comments

[Saurabh Garg]

I think you are over-reacting without understanding the motivation for such a proposal. The Internet is not a cable TV system, and will never be. I personally feel that BellSouth's proposal is actually good for the future of the Internet as a credible media outlet.

[Tim]

I don't believe that money should be able to buy credibility, but that is the business model of the traditional media outlets. The telecoms motivation is money in their own pockets, and nothing else–I believe that has been made very clear by their actions.