Sociology 230: Internet and Society

In this article from The Nation, Jeff Chester describes a debate that's currently going on regarding the future of the Internet. The telecom companies (who own the Internet backbones - the "physical" Internet, if you will) want to make the Internet "pay to play" - no more free searches, free content, free anything. Opponents (including Google and Amazon as well as a number of more expressly political organizations) are arguing against this, and proposing "network neutrality" - an Internet without central, corporate, profit-driven control.

Maybe that anarchic ethos isn't dead after all.